Livestock lost to predators fully compensated

Farmers and ranchers who lose animals or feed due to wild animals will be fully compensated by the government, Saskatchewan's minister of agriculture says.

Bob Bjornerud said Thursday that a long list of livestock will be covered in the program including cattle, sheep, llamas, donkeys, ostriches, emus, chickens and turkeys.

Payments will be based on market prices for the dead animals.

The program will be administered by the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation, although producers will not have to pay any premiums for the compensation.

If a farm animal is injured and can be saved with veterinary treatment, owners can get some compensation to offset the medical bill. Up to 80 per cent of the market value will be paid in those circumstances.

The compensation program is estimated to cost government an additional $2.5 million per year. That cost is being split between the federal government and the province.

Bjornerud said Thursday that cattle ranchers and other producers had been looking for full compensation for years.

Coyote problems

He said the issue was highlighted by an unusually problematic year with one predator: the coyote.

In November, Saskatchewan initiated a $20 per animal bounty on coyotes. That program is set to end on March 31st.

Bjornerud said 23,000 coyotes were killed under the bounty program as of the end of last week.

'If there's a few more people shooting at them, they might stay out of our yards.' —Sask. agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud

He said he "took a lot of heat" over the program, from people who thought it was not necessary to kill coyotes. However Bjornerud insisted it was important to reduce the animals' numbers.

"There was calves or lambs ... even horses in some cases where coyotes were packing up and coming in and killing and maiming livestock across the province which cost ... money." Bjornerud said. "We had to bring that coyote control program in."

He said he was concerned that coyotes were becoming bolder and heard from people in rural areas who were fearful of packs of six to eight coyotes.

He said families were at the point where they were scared to let children play in the farmyard.

"That's a terrible way to live out there," he said.

While it has not happened, Bjornerud said he is concerned about the potential for tragedy.

"I don't think that we had the luxury to sit back and wait for a little kid out there in rural Saskatchewan to be attacked by a group of coyotes," he said. "We certainly weren't going to sit back and wait for something like that to happen."

Fur prices low

Bjornerud explained that one of the reasons coyotes had become a problem was due to low fur prices for coyote pelts.

When fur prices are strong, he said, hunters and trappers kill around 36,000 coyotes per year. Most of them are killed in the winter months, when the coat is most dense.

In the winter of 2008-2009, however, only 17,700 animals were killed for fur.

There were no tallies available for the winter of 2009-2010.

While the bounty program is ending, Bjornerud said he still wants to ensure predators are kept under control, although he does not want to eradicate the coyote altogether.

"We need to remove some of the predators that are costing money out there," he said.

Bjornerud said he hopes the coyote bounty makes a difference.

"Hoping it puts a little fear and respect back into coyotes," he said. "They're a smart animal and they become accustomed to what's going on out there very quickly. And if there's a few more people shooting at them, they might stay out of our yards."