Predators?    A 5000 Year Old Solution
by Jane DeJong
Published in  "The Regional County News"  March 2009

The past year, I‘ve witnessed terrifying headlines both in the Ontario Farmer, and our own local newspapers.  I am sure the same can be said right across our province and country.  Predators are increasing, and livestock and the family farm are at their mercy.  Am I dramatizing? I think not!

“Coyotes Stalk Area Sheep” Clinton News Record , 12/02/08 , “Coyotes Take Stage at Council Meeting”, Clinton news Record ,  “Coyotes Avoid Death Penalty”, Goderich Signal Star,  “Farmers to lose millions to wildlife damage”, Ontario Farmers, 12/16/08, and most recently,                                  “ Farmers fighting a losing battle against introduced elk herds”, 01/13/09.  I could go on, but this is just a small sample of a rising problem, and I think you get the picture.

The Ministry of Natural Resources senior fish–and-wildlife specialist Bev Stephenson is quoted as saying that livestock kills by coyotes have been on the rise this past year (Clinton News Record, 12/02/08 Susan Hundertmark.)  While there can be many reasons for this, it is a problem to every livestock/ cash crop farmer, or pet owner.  Our local veterinarian stated he was shocked at the occurrences of small animal attacks this past spring.  Unprovoked attacks by coyotes wanting nothing more than a feed.   These animals have grown brave, so brave in fact, as recent as last November, a coyote was spotted prowling the streets of Goderich in search of small animals. After an attack on a family cat in a quiet neighbourhood, the public was warned to lock their pets away at night.  It is also quite obvious that they are becoming fearless when we look out of our farmhouse window to spot a coyote tugging relentlessly at a small calf in its protective hut, beside the barn.   Or when you come home to find you small dog has been mauled and half eaten on your very own porch! Not only are there livestock losses, but deer, moose, and elk can cause millions in damage to crops. Isn’t that our livelihood?  These animals all fall into the predator bracket, but wildlife is precious and should be protected at all costs. So what do we do?  I think we can all agree that we have a problem, but there is a solution.  One that does not include a bullet.

For over 5000 years, man has relied on Livestock Guardian Dogs to protect their possessions, whether, livestock, property, or children. We have tended to get away from this heritage and think we can resolve the problem on our own.  Nothing can be as effective as a bold courageous dog doing what it was born and bred to do, efficiently, and completely. Nor can it be as cost effective.

Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD) breeds have been used for centuries to protect livestock from predators in Europe and Asia. The most well-known of these breeds in Canada are the Kuvasz, Great Pyrenees, Akbash and Maremma.  Some of these breeds, the Kuvasz in particular, work as family and home guardians.  Being a hypoallergenic dog, families who always had to forgo having a dog on the arm due to allergic reactions of the children, are now finding them to be the perfect solution. Not only this, but they are amazing at stock protection, which proves that they are an all round multipurpose dog.  Some breeds are used as assistance dogs to their disabled owners because of their sturdiness and strength.  They are generally cautious toward strangers but their size alone can be intimidating.  Unbelievably, even though they are strong, independent-minded and protective, they are known to be gentle with children and livestock alike, quite often found helping clean a newborn calf or lamb.  You see, they consider these animals, to be their own.  To be protected by them, and cared for with tenderness.

Each LGD breed is different, showing a range of temperaments, but all have the same goal in mind. Some are better suited as remote pasture guardians where a daily routine is very constant, while some are good in situations where there is a high degree of variety. They thrive on small farms, in a rural home, or as a city pet. You can find them in the middle of Toronto, or wondering the grasslands of Alberta.  These dogs can find a purpose practically anywhere they are stationed. There are enough variations between the breeds, to provide a suitable dog for most situations. But let’s remember what they were born to do. Protect!

I can only speak of the Kuvasz, because that is what we raise and use to protect our family farm, but I know there are many breeds of LGD that we can all benefit from. We have cattle, and quite often calves are born in the field, not unlike many farmers.  We hear the coyote at night in the back field, but more importantly, we hear our dogs answering them with the warning reply of “Just you try to come close and see what happens”.  We have never had a calf lost to these predators, but I know most certainly we would have if the dogs were not out there. The dogs instinctively know their job; they know who belongs and who is not welcome. They show no fear in the face of danger, whether nose to nose with a bear, moose or obnoxious raccoon.

Like all dogs, LGD’s need daily exercise and the daily discipline of a job to do. They take their job seriously and find immense pleasure in protecting their possessions. Also, just like all dogs, they need training, supervision and a human who is capable of assuming the "alpha" role in their pack.  They quickly learn who loves them, and respect those of authority.

There is nothing that a Kuvasz, or LGD will stand down from whether it be racoon, possum, skunk, coyotes, fox, bear, moose, or elk.  These dogs will not attack and kill predators of the larger group, (bear, coyote, moose, deer and elk), but instead will push them off. They know their territory and chase back anything that comes close. This has a twofold reward as our precious wildlife is preserved and unharmed, something wildlife enthusiasts everywhere would appreciate. Raccoon, skunk and possum however, find a different fate.

The International Plowing Match was a fantastic event this past September, and we had the pleasure of taking our dogs to show.  Literally thousands of people were amazed at the size, strength and beautiful disposition of these dogs. Hardly anyone knew what they were, or what they did.  It seemed that everyone we spoke to told a horrifying story of a predator problem, kill or tragedy.  The solution is simple. The solution is as old as the hills, and the solution, is right in front of us.  Why can’t we be as smart as our ancestors and use the creatures that God gave us for protection. Let them do what they were bred and born to do.  Maybe it’s too simple, and our human nature is to complicate things.

There is another good side to this story. Funding is available to any farmer that has completed the Environment Farm Plan. The program will pay up to 30% of your purchase towards a Livestock Guardian Dog.  This falls under the Preventing Wildlife Damage category #2303 “Scaring and repellent systems and devices”.  You can contact Lois Sinclair for information on when the next EFP workshop is to take place in your area at (519) 357-3146. Also let’s not forget the LGD is a tax write off to farmers. Another benefit!

I hope this has been informative to the readers of Ontario Farmer. The problem has become too big, but the solution so simple. We need to get back to nature, and let nature take care of itself!  LGD’s are very much the perfect natural solution to the rising threats that we all face today more than ever.

A word of caution though.... there is a common saying among dog owners, and that is.... "LGDs are like potato chips - you can't have just one".  I know this to be true... starting with one, and now looking at getting our fourth and fifth.

Jane DeJong 

Ontario Farmer

© Copyright 2008, Sun Media Corporation

Coyote packs take toll of livestock
Cattle producers are looking for hunters to help them cope with growing predator numbers

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 

BY JOHN GREIG, ONTARIO FARMER 

Jim Magee has lost 10 calves in the past year on his 150-cow beef farm. He attributes them all to coyotes.

"It ticks you off when these buggers get them," the Drumbo-area farmer says.

But Magee isn't the only one seeing an increase in coyote damage. In 2006-2007, the Livestock, Poultry and Honeybee Protection Act paid out just under $1 million to farmers. In 2004-2005, just two years before, it paid out just under $600,000.

Coyote hunter and farmer George Wicke counts up the pelts he has from the coyote hunt so far this year and gets to 30. That's more than he has shot before.

Wicke, who is in his 70s, relies on his sons and grandson to help him out running coyotes with dogs these days. He says it hasn't been difficult to find them this year, although, without dogs, he doesn't believe many would have been caught. The coyotes like to stay hidden.

Wicke, who lives near Rostock in Perth County, says a dairy farmer in the area lost seven Holstein calves, plucked from calf hutches.

He helped another hunter track down a couple of coyotes in that area.

However, Magee hasn't been able to call in a hunter to take a crack at the coyotes near his farm. He lives near Hwy. 401 and hunters don't want their dogs to go racing after a coyote across the big highway.

Magee wants farmers who haven't had wildlife damage to their animals, like dairy, hog or cash crop farmers, to be tolerant of hunters chasing coyotes with dogs. Once they are let loose, the hunting dogs can end up far from the release point.

A guard donkey hasn't done the trick, says Magee, although he says, "maybe I'd have lost more with out him."

Magee has only found the remains of three of the 10 calves, although he's convinced that the others were dragged off by coyotes. "They were all calves that I'd seen were up and going. They were fine."

He would pick up that a cow had dried up and then realized that the calf was gone.

Not only would Magee be out the value of the calf, but the cows not nursing calves then gain too much weight.

Biological cycles come and go, and Wicke suggest that now may be the time of the coyote. He emphasizes he's not a biologist, but says "I have a theory."

While out hunting deer, this fall, he found it more difficult to find them. But, the number of coyotes he's shot is at an all-time high.

"We used to see a lot of deer. Now we see a lot of coyotes," he says. That might not be the case everywhere in the province, he says.

Maria de Almeida, a large carnivore biologist with the Ministry of Natural Resources, says coyotes have spread everywhere in eastern North America since the late 1800s and early 1900s, from their original base in the west.

Along the way, they interbred with eastern wolves and got larger. The original western coyote was too small to take on a deer. But now, coyotes thrive in Ontario hunting deer co-operatively.

The coyote is so populous that MNR doesn't try to keep track of their numbers. But de Almeida says when winters have been mild and prey abundant, then the natural cycle of coyotes will mean more coyotes. However, other factors like disease also have an impact on the coyote cycle.

Magee is concerned that hunting of coyotes be able to continue and is worried that the coyotes will run even wilder if animal rights groups get their way and hunting with dogs is banned in Ontario.

WE HAVE ANOTHER SOLUTION !  THE KUVASZ GUARDIAN DOG!

(Jane DeJong)

Ontario Farmer

© Copyright 2008, Sun Media Corporation

Wildlife threat tops farm concerns
OFA president Geri Kamenz is describing wildlife-related losses as a most pressing issue

Tuesday, March 4, 2008 

BY TOM VAN DUSEN, ONTARIO FARMER 

OFA president Geri Kamenz has come out gunning for provincial bureaucrats and politicians, accusing them of failing to properly manage marauding wildlife.

Speaking during the Dundas Federation of Agriculture annual general meeting held in Chesterville recently, Kamenz said bears, coyotes, deer and wild turkey are running wild in Eastern Ontario and other parts of the province and something has to be done about it.

A Spencerville-area cash cropper and hog producer, Kamenz described losses resulting from wildlife encroachment as one of the most pressing issues facing Ontario farmers today.

He estimated that millions of dollars in crop and livestock damage, along with human safety issues, make it mandatory that the provincial government becomes much more pro-active in curbing the wildlife invasion.

He said deer, wild turkeys and coyotes long ago reached nuisance proportions in Eastern Ontario, while black bear are causing havoc in some parts of this region but primarily in the north of the province.

It's come to the point, Kamenz scoffed, that rather than curtailing the bear population through the sanctioned annual hunt which was banned several years ago, provincial authorities are instead funding the teaching of vulnerable elementary students in bear-rich areas what to do if they encounter one.

It's called the Bear Wise program and it's all part of the province's commitment to conserving biodiversity, Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield has stated.

Kamenz blamed wildlife difficulties primarily on provincial programs gone awry, and - in the case of coyotes invading Ottawa suburbs and surrounding farms - on no aggressive management plan.

The upsurge of deer is due to an MNR herd rebuilding program launched several years ago; wild turkey have thrived following reintroduction in the region, once again several years ago; and black bears have been invading human territory in greater numbers since the former hunt was outlawed.

Not only do deer chow down on farm crops, they cause death and injuries to motorists in vehicle collisions which are greater in number every year in the Ottawa area than anywhere else in Ontario.

Marauding coyotes are making of with farm animals and family pets, while soaring numbers of wild turkeys have become another major hazard to crops.

While coyotes can be shot on site where use of firearms is permitted, deer, wild turkeys and bear are protected.

With one-time "nuisance permits" more readily available to farmers with deer problems, Kamenz would like to see similar permits issued routinely to deal with pesky turkeys and bears.