WHITING, Vt. (AP) – A coyote bounty hunt that has generated opposition and a lawsuit seeking to stop it was held over the weekend despite protesters.

About two dozen people stood quietly Saturday morning with signs outside the general store in Whiting while hunters gathered behind the building where coyote carcasses were weighed and laid in the snow.

Organizers said they were helping to protect the state’s deer herd, although state wildlife officials doubt the hunt will make any difference. Opponents said paying bounties for the small coyote taken each day and the largest for the entire event was poor sportsmanship.

“It’s pointless. It’s just bloodlust,” said protester Jim Hoverman of Middlebury

He and the Rev. Paul Bortz of East Middlebury unsuccessfully sought a court injunction to halt this weekends the three-day 1st Annual Howlin’ Hills Coyote Hunt. They have 10 days to make another appeal and they say they will continue pursuing it.

“We’re in this for the long haul,” Bortz said, standing on the roadside holding a sign that read: “Would Jesus Organize a Coyote Slaughter?”

Organizer Donald Fellion, 56, of Leicester said the hunt would go on despite the protests. He said 310 hunters registered for the three-day event.

“I don’t see any real threat to anything,” he said.

But it has prompted some landowners to put their land off limits to hunters. “I posted my land today,” said David Carlson, a 20-year resident of Whiting. “My neighbors are hunters and I respect their right to hunt. But I don’t respect bounty hunts.”

Fellion, who has been hunting since he was 8, said he had gotten threatening telephone calls. He organized the hunt, he said, because a lot of people hunting coyotes and also because he’s trying to control the population of animals that are “eating a lot of deer.”

Fellion has been hunting coyote for a long time. “I got 26 last year,” he said.

He said he likes them for their fur. “They have a nice pelt. They look nice. And I like to give them to people,” he said. “Other ones, I just throw them away.”

Licensed hunters can shoot coyotes any time of year in Vermont. Fish and Wildlife officials estimate the are between 4,500 and 8,000 coyotes in the state depending on the time of year.

Deer hunters blame coyotes for holding down the deer population, but state Fish and Wildlife Department officials were not keen on the derby. They said it was unlikely to have much effect.

“We don’t have the legal ability to shut it down,” said spokesman John Hall. “We do not support having organized coyote hunts. On the other hand it is not illegal. Foremost, we are concerned about the image of the hunter today in the eyes of landowners and those folks who aren’t participating.”

Hall said coyotes feed on deer in the winter and spring, but are not the prime cause of the mortality rate. Hard winters are the more likely culprit.

Bortz and other Addison County residents say they will urge the Legislature to change the law to outlaw bounty hunts and to set a specific coyote hunting season.

“It’s always been a great state to go hunting, but it’s just a slaughter,” said Jed Guertin of Vergennes, another of the protesters. He held a sign reading: “Vermont’s latest black eye.”

Fish and Wildlife officials say the hunt will have little effect on the coyote population. “Research done in other states has shown that at least 75 percent of the coyote population in a local level would have to be removed annually to keep a coyote population suppressed and that very likely is not going to happen,” Hall said.

Maine had a similar controversy when a bounty hunt took place there earlier in the year. There were protests from a humane group and Gov. John Baldacci asked that it be canceled. Only two coyotes were killed.

In Vermont, 18 were killed on the first day alone.

In 2003, Maine’s formal coyote snaring program was suspended following appeals to state officials by humane groups and others.