According to the Peninsula Daily News, people walking on or near Ward Bridge over the Dungeness river have reported seeing 13 coyote carcasses shot dead and dumped under the bridge.
My family owns the farm on Ward Road less than a mile from the site of this massacre.
Every few weeks, I glance out across our 55-acre farm and see a coyote loping east toward the river or west toward a grove of trees where they must have their dens, raise their litter of cubs
It always makes my heart leap to see those lean, bushy tailed creatures running swiftly across our farm.
They are a touch of wilderness in our mean, over-developed, chemically fertilized, greed-driven suburb.
Evidently, shooting coyotes is not illegal and there is no limit on how many canines can be slaughtered and dumped.
However, a license is required.
I wish there was a law against this cruelty.
I certainly sympathize with poultry farmers trying to protect their flocks from predators, including coyotes.
Ways can be found to protect these flocks short of extermination.
Wolves, bears, cougars have all virtually disappeared from our valley, victims of the most lethal predator of all, human beings.
Without predation, nothing keeps the deer population in check except roadkill on our highways.
Some of the coyotes are females.
What happens to her nursing coyote cubs when their mother runs for a drink of water from the river and does not return?
Tim Wheeler
Sequim