Akula wrote on Dec 2^nd, 2010 at 12:07am:

but what do you do with foxes and coyotes? ... can you eat them?

Nothing in my "Northern Cookbook" for either.

The entry in my Larousse Gastronomique for "Fox" reads "Animal ranking as vermin. Its flesh is very tough and with an extremely unpleasant 'wild' taste, but it is sometimes eaten after the animal has been skinned and the flesh soaked in running or boiling water." Doesn't sound great, but they probably have only tasted European foxes. Or maybe they're just being snobby Frenchmen. Or maybe they really do taste awful.

There's nothing in Larousse for coyotes. Since they're more closely related to dogs than foxes are, and dogs are on at least some cultures' menus, I'd guess coyotes would come a lot closer to edibility than foxes do.  The coyotes around here (Alberta foothills) tend to be pretty scrawny, and I suspect the meat would be rather tough and stringy and would need a long cooking time.

As you mentioned, coyotes are good rodent controllers. I remember watching one a couple of winters ago out on the back 40: he (she?) would take a few steps on the snow crust, stop, listen, pounce and quickly start digging. Then scarf down a mouse, and repeat the procedure. That coyote ate about 20 mice in 15 minutes before trotting off to wherever it was going next.