This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

For centuries, coyotes have been trapped, shot, poisoned and cursed as killers.

While their primary diet consists of rodents and other small mammals, their affinity for culling sheep, killing game animals and plucking poodles from suburban doorsteps has made them Public Enemy No. 1.

Still they've prospered, expanding their range from Alaska to Costa Rica, from San Francisco's Golden Gate Park to New York City's Central Park.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says there are more coyotes in the country now than when the U.S. Constitution was signed. This despite an ongoing, misguided, futile attempt by the department's Wildlife Services section to send them the way of the passenger pigeon.

Coyotes are prolific, and resilient. Studies have concluded that they're quick to adapt with larger litters when their numbers are threatened.

Non-lethal predator control programs - fencing, guard dogs, lambing sheds, night penning, birth control pills placed in carrion - are proven, humane methods of limiting livestock depredation. Plus, depending on fur prices, hunters and trappers are often happy to help farmers with their extermination campaigns.

But that doesn't stop Wildlife Services from spending a large portion of its $75 million budget each year to kill coyotes. Aerial gunning, in which coyotes and other predators in agricultural areas are shot and killed from small planes and helicopters, accounted for 32,000 of the government's 75,000 coyote kills in 2004. It's one of Wildlife Services' primary methods of coyote control. But it's taking a toll; a human toll.

Since 1979, 10 Wildlife Services employees died and 28 were injured in aerial-gunning accidents, primarily plane crashes. In June, a pilot and passenger/gunner died when their plane crashed and burned while killing coyotes near Parker Mountain in Wayne County. It brought the death toll in Utah to five since 1996, and sparked a safety investigation of the program.

Aerial gunning is inherently dangerous, requiring low-altitude flights over rough terrain. Pilots have hit hillsides, trees and power lines. Gunners have shot their own planes.

The planes should be grounded and the program discontinued. The department would save lots of money. And precious lives.