Provisions to allow bounties on coyotes and beavers were included in the Environment bill which passed during the special session in July 2011.
July, 2011- The Special Session Environment bill, which passed into law, allows a county or town board to offer a bounty for the taking of coyotes. Also under the new law, the road authority may kill or arrange to have killed a beaver associated with a problematic lodge. Previously, the statute only permitted the removal of beaver dams and lodges by road authorities.The local control program may include the offering of a bounty for the lawful taking of beaver. See Special Session Report here.
March, 2011- Two bills have been introduced in the Minnesota Legislature that, if passed, will allow counties to establish bounties for coyotes and beavers. The first bill, SF 228, authored by Senators Kubly, Higgins, Kelash, Gimse, and Newman, allows for coyote bounties, and the second bill, SF 440/ HF 621, authored by Senator Saxhaug and Representatives Dill and Hackbarth, would allow for coyote and beaver bounties.
More information on these bills and bounties is here
Please contact your State Senator and State Representative and urge them to oppose this legislation.
1. Enter your address to find your State Senator and State Representative here
2. Call, email, or write both your State Senator and your State Representative.
3. You will likely speak with an aide who will relay your message. Sample messages:
State Senator: You can say, “As a constituent of Senator __________, I am contacting him/her to urge his/her opposition to Senate File 228, which establishes a bounty on coyotes, and to Senate File 440, which establishes a bounty on coyotes and beavers. Provisions for bounties on both beavers and coyotes have been included in HF 984, the Game and Fish bill, as well. Bounties have not been proven to be effective means of controlling problem wildlife, and they are prone to abuses. They were discontinued in Minnesota in 1965, and should not be reinstated today. Thank you.”
State Representative: You can say, “As a constituent of Representative ____________, I am contacting him/her to urge his/her opposition to House File 621, which establishes a bounty on coyotes and beavers. Provisions for bounties on beavers and coyotes have been included in HF 984, the Game and Fish bill, as well. Bounties have not been proven to be effective means of controlling problem wildlife, and they are prone to abuses. They were discontinued in Minnesota in 1965, and should not be reinstated today. Thank you.”
Here are a few additional talking points:
Bounties have not been proven to solve the problem. Bounties are not selective and the animal that is killed may or may not have been the offending animal.
Bounties offer monetary awards, which may encourage abuses. Animals may be killed and remitted to counties for reward, whether or not the animal has killed livestock (in the case of coyotes), or caused flooding problems (in the case of beavers).
For both coyotes and beavers, there are nonlethal management techniques that may be used, which include using guard animals, electric fencing, and humane flood prevention/dam control devices.
