There’s no other way to describe it; coyote hunting is cool. Hours of waiting in ambush as hair-raising howls get closer until a pair of glowing eyes become visible in the darkness. If you’re hunting coyotes during the day it means the baying of trained hounds and an exhilarating off-road chase as the dogs flush the predators from cover into the fields where you can slow your breathing and take the shot. No matter how you do it, it’s really cool.
Like all truly cool things, unelected officials want to make it harder to do. On March 14, the Michigan Natural Resources Commission decided in a 4-2 vote to shorten the once year-round coyote hunting season by 60 days, eliminating the period between April 15 and July 15.
Why would they do this? Those who voted in favor of the new rules offered very little explanation. The commission, whose members were appointed by Governor Whitmer, acknowledged that the year-round coyote season, first introduced in 2016, had no negative effects on Michigan’s coyote population. In fact, according to Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the commission offered no scientific evidence at all, even though it is required to base its decisions on sound science.
Instead of science, the commission claimed that it needed to cut back on the season because the thought of orphaned coyote pups might, at some point in the future, stir up a hypothetical mob that would possibly demand coyote hunting be limited even more. In other words, the commission admitted that it needed to cave on the issue now because it might also cave later.
It’s easy to see why Karens hate coyote hunting. First of all, since coyotes are mainly nocturnal, coyote hunters need all kinds of cool gadgets. Precision rifles, often AR-15s, are used alongside James Bond-esque suppressors, night vision goggles, infrared cameras, and even thermal scopes. A certain type of person loves to be terrified of these kinds of things, the same kind of person also gets appointed to the Natural Resources Commission by Gretchen Whitmer.
Second, coyotes look kind of like dogs, and everybody loves dogs! Anybody who has seen what a coyote will do to a dog knows better, but that doesn’t stop the uninformed from wanting to save the fuzzy forest puppies. Third, coyote hunting is beneficial to almost all other types of hunting in Michigan, and Karens love to hate hunting. A single Coyote will kill numerous cute (and delicious) game animals, like deer, turkey, geese, ducks, and rabbits every year.
The Karens haven’t won entirely, though. The new rules don’t ban coyote hunting, far from it in fact. Nuisance coyotes that pose a danger to livestock or pets will still be legal to hunt year-round on private land; it’s only on public land that this decision will have any major effect. Most coyote hunters reportedly take the shot on private land.
Some might wonder then why the rule change matters at all. In a YouTube video about the amendment, Michigan United Conservation Clubs says the decision is “cresting the hill of that slippery slope” where, eventually, the decision about conserving Michigan’s natural resources will be made by uninformed “public sentiment.” Which is to say, the “luxury beliefs” of non-hunters.
MUCC director of development and membership, Steve Windom, says that the Michigan Natural Resources Commission cited “unsubstantiated social pressure and social perception in their decision making,” and made it clear that “public perception was more important than sound scientific management” to the commission. According to MUCC, the commission didn’t even give evidence of the perceived public pressure, and the minutes of the commission meeting show that MUCC is correct.
The commission also claims that the “Furtaker User Group” and “several trapping and hound hunting groups and individuals” had expressed support for shortening the season due to “public perception and potential future impacts to their hunting and trapping opportunities,” but nowhere is any group or person actually exerting this public pressure. None of these mysterious coyote rights activists targeting Michigan can be found referenced online or in the media prior to the hearing either. They may as well attribute these statements to the Road Runner.
The question, then, is who is secretly pressuring the Natural Resources Commission? Why should anyone believe the commission will stand up to the real public pressure they claim they are heading-off in the future? As the MUCC says, this seemingly innocuous rule change could be “the little crack in the dam that nobody thought of” that will eventually unmake Michigan’s rich hunting culture and sport hunting industry. The preservation of cool requires our attention.
Parker Thayer is an Investigative Researcher specializing in the funding of nonprofit activism. Follow him on X at @ParkerThayer.
