Posted on 09/28/2014 3:34:31 PM PDT by jazusamo
When Charlene Warner walks her dog each morning in her neighborhood in upscale Seal Beach, California, she’s terrified she’ll be attacked—not by muggers or gangs, but by coyotes.
“They are killing our animals. They are scaring us. I go out every morning with rocks in my pockets, tennis shoes on, mace on my neck, a whistle on my neckand a foghorn on my leash, and I still don’t feel safe,” Ms. Warner said last week in comments before the Seal Beach City Council.
She has reason to be nervous. Stories abound in nearby Orange County of dogs and cats snatched off leashes and plucked out of backyards a few feet away from their horrified owners. Mangled pet carcasses turn up on front lawns, often identifiable only by their tails.
Earlier this month, a woman living in the Leisure World retirement community opened her screen door to pick up her newspaper, only to watch a coyote scamper inside, grab her cat, and run back out. Another Seal Beach resident, Nate Kranda, started a memorial Facebook page for photos of dead pets.
It’s not just Southern California. From Florida to Washington to Maine, communities are wrestling with how to handle the influx of a surprisingly fearless coyote population. Nobody knows whether the coyote’s numbers are actually on the rise, but there’s little doubt that the adaptable predator is increasingly making itself at home in urban and suburban America.
“It’s spreading all across the United States now,” said Rex Baker, professor emeritus at Cal Poly Pomona, who’s done extensive research on coyotes. “You’re having less hunting going on, and urbanization is continuing, and the coyotes are showing up everywhere.”
In rural America, the solution is obvious: Trap and shoot the varmints. In suburbia, however, local governments are increasingly adopting a “coexistence” philosophy...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The animal lovers view coyotes as beautiful fuzzy wild animals and believe they should coexist because coyotes were here first. The coyote is a very intelligent animal that view populated areas where they're not bothered as an easy meal ticket.
“I go out every morning with rocks in my pockets, tennis shoes on, mace on my neck, a whistle on my neckand a foghorn on my leash, and I still don’t feel safe,”
They’re called “handguns”, ma’am. And they’re perfect for dealing with all kinds of predators both four legged and two legged. Look into them.
That’s why silencers must be allowed...the report hurts my dogs ears.
i would be scared too if i didn’t have my firearms. i’d shoot the damn things if they attacked, i don’t care what the government says.
I live in the western suburbs of of Chicago and the coyotes here have absolutely no fear of man whatsoever. None.
Wait till they start inter breeding with feral dogs.
“I go out every morning with rocks in my pockets, tennis shoes on, mace on my neck, a whistle on my neck and a foghorn on my leash, and I still don’t feel safe.”
Throw all that other stuff away and buy a pistol.
Hopefully not a feral shih tzu. Please shoot the coyotes so we don’t have to listen to feral shih tzu cross breed jokes.
I told them to send him my way. Maybe he can thin out the possums and raccoons in our trees.
I’m encouraged that the writer brought out the fact that rural areas don’t have this problem. That’s because people shoot them and coyotes are smart enough to know they’re not wanted.
The hazing thing just doesn’t work but coyotes understand death.
Oh right! Ownership of guns. Discharge of firearms within city limits. Hunting without a license. This is Kalifornia don’t you know.
My wife was walking our dog (off-leash) in a large overgrown lot in suburbia as she does every day. Our large dog took off running, and she figured he saw a rabbit or something. But then a coyote ran out of the brush - away from our dog. Luckily the coyote was faster than our dog. I think our large, but gentle, dog would have lost.
Too stupid to carry the ONE thing that can save her and her pets life!
About 15 years ago, I opened our patio door one dark night, with my two Belgian Malinois behind me, ready to let them out before bed.
Lierally 3 feet away from me was a very large coyote heading straight for the steps up to my small deck.
My male Malinois almost upset me as he bolted past, with the female hot on his heels, doing “back-up” duty. They chased him off promptly.
I do not want to think about what would have happened if it had been now, with me letting out my little 10 pound Havanese. I now am in “senior living”, and can only have a small dog, but do walk him at night, just before bed. I am in the suburbs, but this story makes me wish I were allowed to “carry”.
Correct those of us the live in the country do not have varmint problems.
If one does become a problem it is shortly dead.
I have never heard of a coyote in our area attacking a dog while on a walk with a person. (Or the person for that matter). A rare story of a small dog alone in their yard going missing. LOTS of outside cats that wander the neighborhood that don’t make it back. Although it has been awhile now. (Smarter owners or fewer coyotes?)
My folks lived out their final years in Leisure World, Seal Beach and this has been a problem for a number of years.
If you walk your dog at night and it’s a similar setting I would get a small canister of pepper spray and carry it with you, it at least offers some protection if you can’t carry. The wife does this in our community here in WA.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/27/AR2010042705323.html
Rick Perry knows what to do about coyotes.
Ah yes, I remember that, Perry did good.
In California, they’re probably registering them to vote.
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