As someone who has run cattle all my life, I kill every coyote I can. Means nothing really the population is established, and the few I get in a year's time has no influence on their population, and does nothing to save the occasional weak calf they take. But maybe with the old herder mentality I have I may not be the person to speak to as you work toward developing a finely honed sense of ethics. Puts me in mind of one I shot years ago. The distance was bad. Way too far in bad light, something like two hundred yards, for an aperture sighted 45-70 single shot. I would never take such a shot at a big game animal with my level of ability. I thought I missed, but when I checked I found a fine spray of blood on the snow. Had the ground been bare I would have missed the blood and assumed I had missed. I tracked him nearly a mile. No hunting season was on, and at one point I tracked him across a highway. I imagined the conversation if a deputy showed up about the time I crossed the highway
He'd ask, "What are you tracking?"
I'd answer, "Coyote,"
He'd come back with, "Two legged or four?"
I'd say, "Does the difference amount to all that much?"
A little further on the coyote gave it up, and I finished him off.