Rebuttal: DP-Coyotes-rebuttal_31-Oct-2012(RJB)
Original article: Daily Pilot
31-Oct-2012
Regarding the Daily Pilot article “Coyotes are Here to Stay” (30-Oct-2012), I found the
attitude of our public service agencies, typical of those expressed in this article, to be
utterly condescending and infuriating. These people who say “just live with it” and
“there’s nothing that can be done” are missing the point. No one denies coyotes exist,
but some of the statements were just ludicrous. Who feeds coyotes? Why would anyone
compare tracking coyotes to reporting stray cats? Coyotes are wild animals, as much as
any mountain lion or bear, that should be regarded in a developed area as a serious
public safety concern, but far more numerous and adept at concealment. This
widespread deference to coyotes is beyond comprehension.
The point is there are far too many of them, way too close to humans (and pets), with
too much freedom to terrorize the neighborhoods as they have been this year and in the
recent past. The point is that the coyotes among us, both on sightings data and on an
anecdotal basis, are worse than they’ve ever been in this area during the almost 30
years I’ve lived here. Just last week, I had my own close encounter chasing away a
coyote on my street in the middle of the night. The point is that the population needs to
be “managed” (i.e., exterminate a number of them) to reduce the chances of something
terrible.
We’re told they’re important for the ecology. Maybe so, but they’re eating our pets! From
personal experience, it is horrific enough to lose a pet in this way where we’ve invested
both emotion and money in their health and well-being, and then be blamed for letting
the animal out in its own yard. Any feedback for solutions from public agencies has
been both insulting and frustrating. I hear that Huntington Beach charges for the pick-up
and removal of remains (usually of a pet) left by a coyote on one’s property. Also,
Animal Control in my own City of Newport Beach had the audacity to tell me what I’ve
been reading is exaggerated. If no one on the public side is keeping track, as stated in
that article, how could they make such a statement? Other responses trivialize the
threat and disregard logic as we’re told there are more dog bites than coyote bites or
that there are more cats killed by cars than coyotes. If unrestrained dogs can command
public safety’s attention, then so should the unpredictable, indiscriminate, and
increasingly frequent encounters with residents and casualties to our pets from these
wild dogs called coyotes.
No one expects 100% eradication, but what we don’t need are more tips on how to let
them control our behavior……..in our own homes, on our own property. We need
solutions for reducing the anxiety, minimizing the aggravation, and regaining some
peace of mind. Since it’s a multi-jurisdictional problem, the easy route for any city is to
pass it off and ignore it. According to some notifications, coyotes are rarely seen in
December and January. So, once again the issue will go dormant…… temporarily.
However, next spring we can anticipate more of the same, maybe worse. “Just living
with them” isn’t a very good option. It’s just a matter of time before a serious incident
(for example, with a child or a deadly disease) motivates some action, be it public or
private, to adequately address the problem.
Roberta Buchanan
Very well said! That’s the oldest cop-out known to man, when they say ; ‘Well you can’t kill them all, so let’s not even try’. As a kid, I hunted everything from deer and wolves to skunks and I would love to volunteer to help ‘thin’ the urbane coyote population, even if I have to do it alone. Lloyd Roberts
Totally agree. I just witnessed three coyotes attacking a neighbor cat the other morning. I thought I was being burglerized. When I went to the window to look out three very large (german shepard size) coyotes were there and one had the neighbor’s cat in its mouth and shaking it. I ran out front to scare them away which i managed to do, but the scary thing is they were not scared of me. They backed off very slowly and once they go to the street they trotted down the street casually looking back at me. Thank god the cat survived, but the neighbor had to take their cat to the vet and have it treated for cuts and two missing teeth. I have nothing against coyotes, but they are wild and need to eat, but not domestic animals! They need to be caught and released in the wild. I don’t want to see them killed, but they do not belong in suberbia neighborhoods. They are wild animals that have gotten way to used to humans and are hunting in our neighborhoods. This really has to stop. I would love to be part of the solution and not just a complainer.