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Foxes hinder coyote fight, trappers say
They want trapping ban lifted
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Published: October 6, 2008
LEXINGTON
Darien Huffman wants to kill coyotes but foxes keep getting into his traps.
In Davidson County and other counties throughout North Carolina, that's a problem.
Foxes are easily lured to traps, so trappers looking to get coyotes often end up trapping foxes as well. Fox trapping is illegal, which means that any captured fox must be released.
"You'll trap several times the number of foxes than the number of coyotes," he said.
Huffman, who lives in Welcome, wants to change that. Last month, he asked the Davidson County Board of Commissioners to petition the General Assembly to allow fox trapping in the county. The commissioners have scheduled a public hearing Oct. 14 on the issue.
Huffman said that allowing fox trapping would make it easier to trap and kill coyotes and it would help manage the growing fox population. Foxes are spreading into neighborhoods and increasing the risk of human exposure to rabies, he said.
Animals such as foxes, coyotes and raccoons are often trapped and killed for their fur, said Keith Templeton, the major of field operations in the enforcement section of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Hunters shoot animals such as foxes for sport.
The General Assembly outlawed fox trapping in the 1970s, said Colleen Olfenbuttel, the black bear and furbearer biologist for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
At the time, fox hunters and fox trappers were lobbying the General Assembly over who would manage the fox population. The fox hunters won out, and the law changed so that the only animals that could be trapped were furbearers. Furbearers are animals such as bobcats and otters that have been traditionally harvested for their fur, Olfenbuttel said.
Fox hunters had worried that the foxes wouldn't survive, she said.
Since the law was changed, the fox population has increased, Olfenbuttel said. More people are encountering foxes, which raises the chances of diseases such as rabies to be spread, she said.
"We never want to see wildlife populations increase to the point where disease becomes widespread through the population," she said. "That's not the indicator of a healthy population."
About 40 of the state's 100 counties allow fox trapping, Olfenbuttel said. Last year, about 6,000 foxes were harvested in areas where it is legal to trap foxes, she said.
Coyotes are a big problem across North Carolina and in Davidson County, Carl McKnight, the agricultural extension agent for Davidson County Cooperative Extension.
McKnight said he has seen goat farms where coyotes kill two to three goats every night. Two months ago, coyotes killed a horse.
Coyotes end up preying on dogs and cats in the northern section of the county where there is a lot more housing and a lot less natural food, such as rodents, McKnight said.
Olfenbuttel of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said that trapping is an important way to manage animal populations. Trappers are put in a dangerous position to have to always release foxes, she said.
McKnight said allowing fox trapping would help deal with the problem of coyotes.
"We do need to do something to reduce the coyote population or people will not have outside dogs and cats," he said. "They'll be considered food."
■ Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at mhewlett@wsjournal.com.
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