AMHERST ISLAND – Sheep farmers will argue that the best way to control predators is by using protective fencing, dogs and guns. But guns work best if you are willing to put in the time.

Dave Willard is so fed up with coyotes attacking his sheep that he bought a .303 rifle and has gone on the offensive. In the last three years he has shot 25 coyotes.

Willard, who contacted the Napanee OPP and obtained a firearm acquisition before he bought the gun, has a unique action plan.

In the winter, when the coyote problem is worse, he drags an animal carcass to a hillside that is visible from a second storey window in his house. He attached a flood light on a nearby pole. In the dead of night, he wakes up every hour on the hour and without having to get out of bed, looks out a window in the next room to see if coyotes have arrived. When he sees one, he opens the window, rests his arm on a pillow on the window sill, peers through the scope and fires.

Willard says that he and the two other sheep farms on the island, southwest of Kingston, in Lake Ontario, now have the upper hand. One of the other farms, recently erected predator-control fencing. The other farm expects to do the same.