LANSDOWNE – Sheep farmer and trapper Al Whitlam points at a photo of a dead coyote, its grey coat of fur turned ratty, like cheap fur forgotten in an attic. The coyote looks as though it had been shot. It wasn’t. It had sarcoptic mange, an infestation of mites on the skin. The coyote loses its protective fur from the cold and "And that’s what kills it," Whitlam said.

He blames the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) for the coyotes’ suffering and its lack of decision making. "I’m sick of their BS," he says. "And I’m sick of their hypocrisy. If I treated my livestock like that I’d be in court and I’d never be allowed to own animals again."

Whitlam wants the ministry to manage the over-population of coyotes in Ontario, to thin them out and trap the ones with mange and put them out of their misery. Whitlam is responding to the MNR line that argues not to hunt or trap coyotes because sarcoptic mange will keep the population under control.

"This (doing nothing) is absolutely immoral," Whitlam says. "This is not right."

Not that he has much love for coyotes. Over the years he’s killed 2,000 of them as a provincially certified trapper and hunter but he doesn’t like to see animals suffer. He’s served as Ontario’s representative on the Canada-wide task force that set humane trapping standards in 1999 and on the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture predation team in 1997 and 1998.

He says sarcoptic mange is a great threat to both dogs and their masters. Pets that roll on the ground in coyote country can become hosts of the mites that do the dirty work and humans as well can pick up the disease, known as scabies in humans.

He’s calling for a force of licensed trappers to go on to farms and thin out the coyote overpopulation and irradicate those suffering from mange. The government and not the landowner should pay the trapper $250 for every coyote they kill as a service to the community, he says.

Whitlam also a personal interest in the matter. He shepherds 1,000 ewes and lambs at Lansdowne, west of Brockville, in the peak of the season. Last year, he lost six ewes and six lambs to coyotes.

"I feel it a real insult when a coyote comes in and kills one of my lambs," he says. He keeps 10 guard dogs and erects fences and altogether it costs him about $9,000 a year to look after his dogs.

"You can no longer have a single dog looking after the sheep," he says. "The coyotes will kill a single dog." He recommends two working dogs for every 100 sheep.