I hear coyotes here almost every night. And so long as they don't bother our cats (coyotes most definitely do eat small household pets) then I don't mind them. I'm thrilled to see almost any wild animal (with the couple of exceptions mentioned above). I think it would be thrilling to see a bobcat sometime.
So your an animal lover huh? How 'bout squirrels? Coyotes love them too! Rabbits? Coyotes love them. Wild turkeys? Yep, coyotes really, really, love them. Their eggs too. Ducks? You guessed it coyotes love them. I could go on.
I'm from Alabama, lived here all my life. Hunted all my life from 8 yrs on. Never saw a coyote till about 20 yrs ago. Let these critters move in to an area and don't control them and there goes your game. Don't think they'll take down a deer? Think again. EVERYONE who hunts anything HATES coyotes.
Those calves are the cowman's means of making a living. Start losing a 'few' to anything, and there will be action taken to stop the loss.
Heard the eco-terrorist Dave Foreman preach at a local university several years ago. Foreman told the audience about introducing black-footed ferrets into an area. He said with a smile that peoples cats were disappearing from that area at an high rate, alarming to pet owners, but obviously pleasing to Foreman.
I pre-k or kindergarten-sized child does not weigh as much as a calf. I would be very concerned about coyotes stalking where small children were. Fortunately, in Texas we still have thousands of hunters, and coyotes are considered about as desirable as rats, so they are not so bold as to stalk children or pets in broad daylight.