Another evening phone call at my Recorder desk that got my wheels spinning. Gotta love it.

The caller was a dear old friend, one I see far too little of now that we’ve “grown up” and gone our separate ways. That’s life. But he touches base now and again, usually at my workplace, to rattle my cage about something or even discuss a serious matter. This was the latter.

I knew he was stirred when he asked, “Hey Bags (my nickname since childhood), why do they protect those goddamn coy dogs? Someone’s got to tell them to smarten up. What good are they? Why don’t you go after the idiots protecting them? I’m gonna shoot every one I can whether they like it or not.”

Strong words from an otherwise conservative, law-abiding man. And he is far from the only person with such a strong opinion in disfavor of our Eastern coyote. You’ll hear the same rant from country folk who raise livestock or fowl, own cats or dogs, any of which can feel the deadly fury of the opportunistic Eastern coyote, still “coy dogs” to some in the Franklin County vernacular.

Before we proceed, be it known there are readers out there who’ll accuse me of publicizing or even lending credence to an irresponsible point of view. But I’ll take my lumps here. I believe people are entitled to their opinions in this land of the free, home of the brave, despite what “culture warriors” Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, those two “fair-and-balanced” guardians of freedom, liberty and justice, say.

But let’s not digress. … Back to my buddy and his coyote problem, which left me a little perplexed at the start of our conversation. I tried to clear my confusion.

“Why do you say they’re protected?”

“Because they have a season on them. You should be able to shoot ’em year around.”

“Oh yeah, I guess the season goes from November to March. That’s not long enough for you?”

“No. It should be year around. What good are they? When I see them around my place, I’m gonna kill ’em. Take that to the bank.”

What had my friend’s blood boiling was backyard slaughter, a poignant, bloody mess on virgin snow. It seems he’d grown quite fond of three fawns and two does feeding at the edge of his yard since June and enjoyed their presence as many rural residents do. There’s just something peaceful and comforting about deer grazing on your lawn when you pull into your driveway at dusk. “They weren’t tame by any means but they’d stay right there, look at me and keep eating as long as I didn’t make a loud noise, quick movement or anything.”

Presumably due to the abundance of acorns and the lack of snow and winter cold through January, the deer were noticeably absent for months, totally ignoring the winter corn piles Mr. Bad Boy had dumped along the woods line, and he was wondering what was going on. Deer had always come to his cracked corn in previous years, but this year nothing. But then came the snow, the bitter cold and the deer, daily in February.

Yeah, yeah, we all know the authorities frown on feeding wild animals, including if not especially deer. In fact, it’s downright illegal. But we also know that people do it all the time and will continue to do so. So, given that there’s little anyone’s going to do about it, let’s just ignore the issue for the sake of telling a story.

With the late winter finally taking root for the February freeze, the deer came to my buddy’s corn regularly for a few weeks then curiously disappeared. After days of absence, he suspected something was amiss. He wasn’t sure what, but something wasn’t right. Then, during the barren period, he came home, noticed hair frozen to the crusty snow and went out back to investigate. Sure enough, coyotes had taken down a deer, probably one of the fawns, right by the corn mounds. All that remained was blood and hair, two telltale signs. He followed a faint trail back into the woods a little ways and came up only with a square piece of hide and hair, nothing else, before turning back.

“Those (illegitimates) killed that deer right there where it was eating. I don’t know if they waited in the bushes and ambushed it or what, but they took it down right where they’d been eating.

Perhaps the deer had been wounded by a car, then devoured, I thought out loud.

“I knew you were going to say that, or that it was for some reason weak. Maybe so, but I think they killed a healthy deer. They sure looked healthy to me.”

It’s definitely possible for canids to take down a healthy deer, particularly on slippery, crusty snow that can be deadly to whitetails. Maybe a family unit of coyotes surprised the group of feeding deer and one of them, startled, slipped and splayed out on the icy surface. It happens, and coyotes are well aware of deer’s helplessness on ice. That’s why they are known to coordinate winter chases toward frozen surfaces, force a whitetail onto the ice and make quick work of it where, hooves rendered useless, it’s splayed on its belly and unable to move, a pathetic sight. Pathetic indeed.

Also, when snow is crusty like it was at the time of the kill last week, deer are particularly vulnerable. When chased by a pack of coyotes or domestic dogs, the pursuers stay on top of the crust and the pursued break through, creating a mismatch, especially in deep snow. The final act is not pretty.

Self-described “animal lovers” who view that final act as an act of nature, not predatory malice, would be the first to abhor a cleaner, quicker, more humane kill of an unsuspecting creature by a bipedal hunter. On one hand, they philosophize it’s wrong to have a vendetta toward coyotes for slaying deer, on the other they propose a ban on immoral human hunting.

Go figure.

A couple of items about, dare I say, competing interests on the Millers River conservation front, one about the upstart Millers River Fishermen’s Association led by indomitable Peter Mallett, the other regarding the Millers River Chapter of Trout Unlimited and Ken Elmer.

To avoid any favoritism accusations we’ll list them according to date of the event they want publicized, which means the MRFA agenda first.

— Mallett and the boys will be set up at Sunday’s annual North Quabbin Sportsmen’s Experience, a sporting show held at the Athol-Orange Elks. There and later at the annual Millers River Rat Race (April 14), the MRFA will be selling raffle tickets for a Cabela’s Panther river-drift pontoon boat to be raffled off on June 30, the date of the organization’s fishing derby for kids 1-14. … In other MRFA news, the organization is selling five-piece topographical map sets of the Millers River basin, including all 45 miles of river. The cost is $10. They are available by calling Mallett at (978) 544-7126 or visiting the MRFA Web site. … The MRFA has organized two trout-stocking and tagging events in May. The first on May 5 at the Orange Wastewater Treatment Plant off Route 2A, the second on May 19 at the Birch Hill parking lot in South Royalston. Kids will be allowed to tag their own trout for release into the river on those dates. … Whew! Never short and sweet when it comes to Mr. Mallett.

— As for the MRTU Chapter, it will hold its annual banquet March 31 at the Sacred Heart Church on Cross Street in Gardner. A pasta dinner will be followed by well-known fishing guide Marla Blair, who’ll present a program “Fly Fishing on Kodiak Island, Alaska.” Doors will open at 6 p.m. and supper will be served a half-hour later. Many great raffle items will be up for grabs. For more information, check with the MRTU Web site at www.millersrivertu.org.