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Comment by lostphilosopher | Hacker News Reader

(Editing, I wrote from memory and wasn't quite right.)

There's evidence that suggests[1] that efforts to control Coyote populations by killing them off are less effective than we thought - as the Coyote population drops in one area it creates a vacuum filled by coyotes from another area + increased reproduction, resulting in areas that underwent "coyote control" having spent a lot of time/money/effort and being back where they started at the end of it.

I can't verify a word of this, but I found the possibility interesting.

(I'm generally against any indiscriminate traps like these. I'm fine with hunting coyotes, but a device like this is too much of a risk to non-coyotes - as other commenters have already pointed out.)

1. https://www.npr.org/2019/06/14/730056855/killing-coyotes-is-...

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Why shouldn't someone be able to place these on their own property? Sure it creates a coyote vacuum but by definition said vacuum has less coyotes in it than the surrounding area. You then only have to deal with the ones that show up rather than an entire population. These seem useful for people who raise chickens and other small livestock that would be very attractive to coyotes. Obviously they need to be used carefully, like anything else that's designed specifically to be poisonous but these seem safer and more targeted than leaving out a dead varmint that's been laced with poison.

The original wikipedia article is about their use by the government on public lands, not their use by citizens on private property. The original article also has a list of cases where these devices have accidentally harmed humans and pets. If that's happening I assume it's also killing animals other than coyotes but there's no one to document those events. That's why I call them indiscriminate.

Regarding private property, what guarantees that people will remove these when they move? Or remember where they put them? I remember finding old school traps on my parent's land growing up, left there by a previous owner. Most were not loaded or rusted beyond operation, but some still snapped when you hit them with a stick. From the pictures, I'm not sure I'd spot one of these devices while running around in the woods...

Why shouldn't someone be able to place these on their own property?

For the same reason I'm not allowed to duct-tape a shotgun to a chair and tie the trigger to my doorknob.

That’s what the law calls a “mantrap” if anyone wants to do more homework.

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