Sixth-grader Cole Vineyard displays his seven trapped coyotes
Cole Vineyard, a sixth grader at Calhoun Middle School, has lowered the estimated 50,000 coyote population in West Virginia by seven.
Young Vineyard, son of Earl and Julie Vineyard of Arnoldsburg, trapped seven coyotes during the November to February season, then froze them.
Vineyard said he runs his traps, with the help of his dad, before he goes to school. "They're really smart, can smell human scent," he said, requiring him to wear rubber gloves and cover the traps well.
"I've caught a lot of foxes, raccoons and 'possums," he added.
A biologist with the US Department of Agriculture says that to reduce the state's coyote population, hunters would have to kill roughly 37,000 animals every year for at least 30 years.
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