OCR Text |
Show NEVADA COYOTES ARE GOING MAD-, SHEEPMEN BECOMING WORRIED Will the mad coyotes the thousands of wild animals afflicted with rabies invade Utah next spring and howl around the farming farm-ing communities, biting sheep nnd snnpplng children, ns they have done in Nevada? This is the question that hundreds of sheepmen of the state and, in fact, practically every farmer is asking, nnd so serious Is tho threatened danger that some extreme measures may have to be adopted to keep out the coyotes. Fear that Utah sheep now on winter range in Nevnda will bo followed back into Utnh by the diseased coyotes is expressed in letters received by A. A. Callistcr, secretary of tho Utah state board of sheep commissioners. Information is given that the problem is such a serious one in Nevnda that school houses have had to be closed for fear of the coyotes. The nnimnls, otherwise so nfraid of humans, nre made r M by tho rabies nnd Bwnrm like hungry wolves around humnn habitations. The toll taken in sheep, cnttlo nnd other animnls is henvy in Nevnda nnd many dogs have become infected with the disease by being bitten. Cnllister explains that several years ago some men in Oregon inoculnted coyotes with rabies, thinking to thus kill off the pests. Instead of accomplishing this object, the disease spread bo that mad wild dogs are found in nearly all tho Western and Northwestern North-western States in particular, except Utah. Dr. C W. McClure, secretary of the National Woolgrowers' association, is inclined to think there is no present dnnger from tho coyotes, although ho 1 ndmits the Nevndn situation is a serious one. 1 "Tho coyotes afflicted with rnbies aiill have a hundred or bo miles to travel before they get into Utah and we have none of them yet," explains Fred W. Chambers, state fish and game commissioner. com-missioner. "However, that ia a comparatively short distance nnd Utnh farmers will do well to be on their guard against them." |