Baiting Coyotes On Antelope Island
I’m of the strong opinion that baiting wild animals of any kind for photographic purposes (or most any other purpose, with very few exceptions) is a despicable practice. It often puts the critter at risk in a variety of different ways and no photo is worth that. I’ve railed against baiting before on this blog so I won’t go into all the details once again here. But this morning I saw another example of why I despise this practice so much. The weather has been dreary and overcast for so long that I haven’t been out photographing for a while, but this morning we decided to head for Antelope Island just to get “out there” and ease our cabin fever a little, despite the clouds. As we came around a small curve on the island we noticed this coyote in the middle of the road. I could hardly believe it when I saw that it was feeding on dog food that someone had obviously spread down the center of the road in an attempt to lure coyotes up close and into an area where they wouldn’t be obscured by vegetation. And it worked! Even as close as we were, the coyote was intent on eating all of the dog food before it left the area. After taking a few documentary photos I drove up to the spot and then we picked up the kibbels and threw them away from the road (we probably should have taken them with us but I didn’t think of it at the time). We then reported what we saw…