Coyotes And Wildlife Services Poem by Chuck Toll

There’s something subversive, even socialist, about
The way coyotes scrounge their livelihood for free.
Ranchers, who lease public lands for nominal fee
Then post them as their own, want them driven out.

Certain of these feral freeloaders’ depredations,
Ranchers dismiss the studies showing that herds
Are not affected by coyotes as patently absurd
And lobby for ever-greater government protections.

More than a century ago, Wildlife Services was created
To dispatch predators that, in owners’ minds, obstructed
The exercise of American free enterprise they conducted
On public and private lands. The ranchers were elated.

Agency expenses, including workers and their bosses,
are publicly funded and far exceed the ranchers’ losses.