By Margaret Baird

"April is the cruelest month," wrote poet T.S. Eliot. That sentiment has never been truer than at Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts, where managers routinely rely on "hired guns" to hunt and kill resident coyotes each spring in a misguided attempt to protect endangered and threatened shore birds.

In the nine years since the kill policy was instated, the death count at Monomoy has reached more than 50 coyotes. That number includes both adults and pups, who may either be dragged from their dens and shot, or simply left to starve to death.

To get the job done, refuge managers contract annually with U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services (WS) sharpshooters, who are brought in from as far away as Colorado at taxpayer expense.

Wildlife hunted down and shot—in a wildlife refuge? By the federal government?

It's no misprint, and this is no isolated case. The coyotes killed on Monomoy, and the helpless pups left to die, are victims of the draconian "nuisance wildlife control" policies of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that oversees National Wildlife Refuges. The USFWS continues to commission WS sharpshooters to carry out the lethal operations, despite The HSUS's repeated offers to fund non-lethal methods to solve the alleged problem at Monomoy.

So what is the problem? In short, USFWS officials believe coyotes are a deadly threat to Monomoy's endangered and threatened shore birds—a claim that is, at best, murky. The coyote shootings are part of USFWS's ongoing "avian diversity" project at the refuge, a deceptively named program that amounts to killing potential predators, whether they be mammals or birds. The project began in 1996 when USFWS poisoned more than 5,000 black-backed and herring gulls, who tend to drive away or prey on other nesting birds.

The Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, composed of two islands and located at the "elbow" of Cape Cod, hosts one of the largest populations of common and least terns on the Atlantic seaboard. While neither one of those species is considered endangered, they do share their nesting areas with the roseate tern, an endangered species. The piping plover, a threatened species, also nests in the refuge. In 2004, the refuge reported a total of 27 nesting pairs of piping plovers and 25 pairs of roseate terns.

"In choosing to kill the predators of these sea birds, the USFWS is essentially dismissing alternatives to lethal control, not to mention research that indicates such deadly methods produce only temporary boosts to ground-nesting bird populations," says Jessica Almy, wildlife advocate at The HSUS's Cape Wildlife Center in West Barnstable, Massachusetts. "The fact is, the decline in both the roseate tern and the piping plover populations seems due mostly to habitat loss, not predators."

The USFWS continues to scapegoat coyotes rather than tackle the much larger, more complex issue, Almy adds. Instead, each year refuge officials wait until a pair of coyotes have produced a litter of pups before sending in the sharpshooter to kill the pups as well as the parents and any other adults in the area. Officials believe this is the only way to ensure that no other reproductive coyotes will establish a territory on the island in the current season.

In April 2002, a WS sharpshooter killed a litter of ten pups on South Monomoy Island. Six pups were killed on the spot, and the other four were held at Monomoy headquarters for a researcher who had told refuge managers that he wanted to do a behavioral study of the young animals. One died while in captivity, and the remaining three were shot when officials discovered the researcher no longer wanted the pups.

This year, as in seasons past, The HSUS has offered to help refuge managers find and apply effective, non-lethal strategies for protecting the terns and plovers. We have offered to pay for fencing to protect the birds from coyotes, and other predators, and even offered volunteers to erect and maintain the exclusion fencing. However, the USFWS has repeatedly rejected our assistance, claiming the cost would still be prohibitive.

The government's refusal to consider a humane, non-lethal, long-term solution has inspired local outrage, Almy says. Several past and current public officials have spoken out against these practices, while activists in Chatham, Massachusetts, and scientists have argued that a refuge should provide sanctuary for all wildlife as well as a naturally functioning ecosystem that includes both predators and prey.

What You Can Do

Whether or not you live in Massachusetts, you can make your voice heard by writing to Monomoy's managers and planner to decry the annual slaughter of coyotes on Monomoy. Please also send a copy of your letter to the regional director.

Mike Brady, Refuge Manager
Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge
Wikis Way, Morris Island
Chatham, MA 02633
Fax: 508-945-9559

Libby Herland, Project Manager
Bill Perry, Refuge Planner
Eastern Massachusetts National Wildlife Refuge Complex
73 Weir Hill Rd.
Sudbury, MA 01776
Fax: 978-443-2898

Dick Dyer, Refuges Program Supervisor/North
Northeast Regional Office
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
300 Westgate Center Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035-9589
413-253-8553
Fax: 413-253-8308

Margaret Baird is Assistant Director of The HSUS's Urban Wildlife Program.