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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1991)
COMMUNITY Trapper praised by ranchers, takes heat from others By Gerrit Koepping f rnerakl Reporter Lou Dailby, un Llmira sheep rune her. lost ii pregnant own to a coyote lust Sun day, so ho railed fuck Spent or to tlo something alxmt it Spencer, the animul damage control spot tails! (or Lane County, is the man some people call when they have trou ble with wildlife On this chilly morning pist south of tvlmiru, Spent er brings his wooden and pliistu coyote tails and crouches at the edge of the nearby w oods ity imitating the ovule sound spell ter hopes to draw the animal out .inti kill it This time tlx- plan doesn't work (■oil, they're smart.'’ he said They tan smel I the st ent td the hotltun ol your hoots. Bailey saitl "You’ve got to admire the t apahililies of the tilings he said But Hailey tries to accept defeat We tun make lots of mistakes,' lie said ' Hie coyotes t an make none Trapping the inntM ent Itarhara Kelley is a woman who loves animals and the environment In 1077, she worktti to stop herbicide spraying in timber nones But in the fall ol I'CH. she found a new t ause Her longhaired (iermun shepherd. I aslia, hmf been missing lor three days As Kelley walked into the backyard of her ( ullage (trove home, she saw some thing slowly move under a tarp I aider the tarp was Tasha She had stepped into a steel teghold hear trap Kelley said the dog injured her shout tier from dragging the leg hack Tasha had >i high fever, her paw was badly mangled and she had developed gait grime She tful not lose her paw. hut her In; is permanently disfigured, Kelley said Kelley's house is adjacent to Bureau ol I.anti Management property, and she said she believes that s where the trap w as set "One reason I moved to the forest was so I wouldn't have to confine im great big dug who never hurt anything or am body Kelley said After this in< idem. Kelley shifted fu r efforts to fighting wllat she sees as the cruel practice of trapping There is no plate in our society lor this kind ot barbarism," Kelley salt! lust imagine getting vour finger caught in a t ar door for a w eek l.inda Kudv, a receptionist at the For est Valley Veterinary Clinic in Cottage drove, said her of fit e sees si\ to 10 tings a year that have been caught in traps Protw tin# the herd Shepherd is .ilsn concerned about animals Specifically, he's ion i erned alxnil his i .idle and sheep About two years ago. Stiepherd found two ewes dial were killed and two that were seriously injured, victims of what he said was an overnight coyote attai k So like Hailey, Shepherd sought out the help of Spencer Spent er set snare and steel Icghuld traps to t .ill h the animals Hie next day Shepherd saw one male coyote stalking ins herd, he shot and killed It Two days later, one of Spencer s snares caught a female coyote. Spent er killed it After that. Shepherd said, the live stock predation stopped Shepherd said he's glad to he aide to call a professional, such as Spent er, when sut h problems arise Spent er is a government employee whose program gets Slti.tXH) a year from Lane County and a matching amount from the federal government Spencer's jobs have ranged from trap ptng an opossum in a schoolyard to trapping a hear that was killing a rant ti er's sheep There used to lie three men titling the same job that Spencer now tioes but after budget t uts. tie's tin* only one left Predators killed more than $J7t>.()00 worth of livestock m PCM), according to Ptioio fry ArXfcr* fUnn* Jack Spencer, the animal damage control tpacieliat lor Lane County, sets up a trap to catch predators ol ranchers livestock. Al though ranchers appreciate his efforts, many environmentalists argue against his methods of trapping **N5#0 by An*}** H»r m' Spencer imitates coyote calls to draw the predator that recently killed a ewe in the nearby woods figures provided f>v I'um Hoffman. the tiim:l»r of animal <1.image i onlrul in l )r egon Hill Hoffman said tfit; actual mini tier of animals killed "is prohatdv vs .1 n . way in excess of that " In I'l'KI his de parlment trapped and killed H. 1 cos otes and trapped 111 him k bears. kill mg some and relocating others Storm of 1 ontroversy Spent er was a part of that trapping el fort and thus is a man in the midst of a controversy Environmentalists, like Kelley, say Spencer uses txirharn meth ods. at taxpayers' expense, to kill ani mals so ranchers won't have to look af ter their own livestock Spencer hotly disputes tills "I do a lot of work for ranchers, hut w ith opos sum and rootnon, it evens out," fie said "Opossums and racoons alone cause thousands of dollars of damage "1 get it from both sides," Spencer said "If I kill a cougar or a covote, I get it from the environmentalists If I don't kill tfie problem animal. I get it from the ram hers Hut when in doubt. Spencer tends to side with the ranchers They're tin* only people w ho uppre i iate me." Spencer said He said it is important to remember that he doesn't want tu kill all the pred ators in tin' area just the problem ani mals "Once a coyote starts killing sheep, they keep killing sheep.' Spencer said "We i an t reform the animal Money problems Someday. Spent er might not have his job Hat h year the Lane (County Hoard of (Commissioners votes on whether to fund Spencer's position Hoard (Chair man (at k Roberts s,ntf planned budget t uts could result in the elimination of Spencer s funding That would lie fine with ferry Kust Since Kust was elected to the commis sion. he has voted against funding Spen t er He opposes Spent er s program, not for humanitarian reasons, but bet ause he said it only benefits ranchers "I'm not opposed to rant hers taking t are of their livestock." Kust said "But I'm opposed to the taxpayers paying for it " Spencer is not without supporters (Commissioner Kllie Dumdi has voted to fund Spencer's work in each of her four \ ears on the board Yet, even Dumdi admits that Spen cer's job may eventually lie In jeopardy "Because of declining revenues, noth ing is sat red, she salt! Possible effei Is Of course. Spencer is concerned nlxmt what will huppen if his program Is cut. he h'lirs not for himself, but fur the urea's wildlife, lie said "A lot of people are going to use whatever means they can to control predators." he said. Some of those peo ple are going to use poison halt and kill every damn thing around One woman. Spencer said, shot a deer and laced its carcass with poison in an attempt to kill covotes She killed a cou ple of foxes and a neighbor's dog, but didn't get a single coyote Spencer, on the other hand, said he uses methods that are more selective Kelley said such incidents could he avoided il a non-profit organization is sel up to educate and encourage ranch ers to use guard dogs instead of traps and poison 'Phis way. Kelley said, with guard dogs they (the ranchers) are forced to care for their own animals ' At least, Kelley said, taxpayers would no longer be paying lor the steel leghold trap, which have been banned in t»4 coun tries But Spencer has more in his arsenal than |ust Ins H5 steel leghold traps Spenier also has a large number of steel snares, sodium-i vanide traps, some live traps, his rifle and a 22-caliber revolver The steel snares he places around holes in ranchers' femes tti.it coyotes craw l through When the coyote passes halfway through the snare, it cinches around its torso Spencer said the ani mal does not suffer while it is snared, hut once Spencer finds an animal in a snare, he immediately kills II. Spencer also has around 75 M-44 traps, which when set up are placed flush y\ ith the ground with a piece a hail placed over tile trap. When the hail is pulled, a sodium-cyanide capsule is shot into the mouth of the animal Spencer said it is ironic that with more funds fie could develop and trap yvith more humane methods. We have people working in govern ment latis designing traps that get along better yvith the animals," Spencer said "About a quarter of animal damage con trol money goes into research "