Posted on 01/09/2023 3:23:34 AM PST by marktwain
In 2022, the officials of Nahant, Massachusetts, started noticing they had a coyote problem. The coyotes had become so disdainful of people they had snatched, killed and eaten three pets directly from leashes. Numerous other pets were killed and eaten. No one knows precisely how many. From December 15, 2022, abcnews.go.com:
Local officials said eight to 12 coyotes inhabit Nahant, a densely settled town of about 3,300 people on a peninsula about 15 miles north of Boston. The animals have killed pets, including three that were taken straight from leashes held by their owners, said Antonio Barletta, the town administrator.
Coyote populations are on the rise all over the country. They are causing problems, killing pets and livestock and even attacking the occasional person, from California to Texas to now Massachusetts. Several coyote attacks against people prompted a program to reduce the coyote population in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Nahant town officials decided they needed to reduce the coyote population. They decided to hire federal agents from the Department of Agriculture. From cbsnews.com:
The town of Nahant will become the first community in Massachusetts to bring in trained marksmen to shoot and kill habituated coyotes. Town officials voted Wednesday night to enter into an agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture.
“We have risen to a level of public safety threat in the town,” said resident Vivien Gere who lost her dog Snoopy to an aggressive coyote back in June. “I had him on a short leash and the coyote just took him off the leash and slaughtered him and ran off with him right in front of me.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
One went across my rural driveway last night at 2:18 a.m..
Nahant is a very wealthy place, and I have had some interesting interactions out there...I have zero doubt coyotes could just saunter out there without really being noticed. I suppose cameras set up (they no doubt have them) would pick them up.
It is a beautiful place. I’ve been to parties out on the point of Nahant, facing back towards Boston, and boy, it sure was a beautiful house. One of the houses has two WWII era concrete observation towers for spotting submarines, I would guess, that are still on their property.
How I would love to have one of those on my property if I lived near the ocean. I would build a man-cave up there.
I don’t think they cross the bridges or are deliberately placed there
? I wonder. Rabbits chew the bark off of plantation pines. Big moneys own the trees and know peoples.
Interject the tingly leg giver mental enablement and THE solution.
For a while after the “reestablishment” , oh about 15 years and they’re here thick now, we could not get a game warden to even come look at a dead one.
Incidentally they now call themselves (conservation police).
The more we kill them the more they breed and spread..
Some years back, a few of us were outside in a rural area of central-western Massachusetts, just standing outside late at night, and we heard the most terrible sound of a dog in agony, yelping in a squealing screetch interspersed with the sound of a yipping pack of coyotes.
It was awful. The poor dog was no doubt being torn to pieces (as the horrible yelping suddenly ceased) and it was hideous to hear.
Nature isn’t kind. It is cruel. Period.
These imbeciles who say “Oh, wolves don’t pick on people” have no idea what they are talking about.
If wolves needed food, they damn well would do to an isolated, unarmed human what they did to that poor dog we heard.
Grew up there, first 33 years. Affluent though my family basic middle class. Crowded given the small area. Yes
1 sq mile and the causeway only way into and out of town (like the Marblehead Neck section of Marblehead). You can see the skyline of Boston from the causeway, Bass Point etc.
Gangster Jerry Anguilo lived there.
On the Nahant Facebook page there are posts
from at least one resident who believes the coyotes should not be shot/killed. Of
course the canines inspired those Wile E Coyote Looney Tune shorts.
Beverly, where I live now, also has had
coyote incidents.
No traffic lights.
No middle school or high school (students
attend those in Swampscott though in the 70s for me we did have a “junior high” and I went to high school in Lynn)
coyotes are so bad near me (rural New England) at certain times a year I only take my dog out while I carry my pistol - packs of 6-8 are routinely wandering my fields.
Years ago used to raise livestock (sheep, goats) and would sometimes loose 6 or more animals in a single night the infestations where so bad - despite having 5 strand hi-tensile electrified fencing all around my property.
Once the coyotes realized there was easy food on the other side, they were relentless. Finally gave up having livestock primarily for this reason - it was almost a FT job just warding them off, and couldn’t take the constant financial losses.
Maybe came across in the night...the causeway is about 1.3 miles long, maybe less and has a long beach and parking area.
The proper names for “coyotes” in the east are “Eastern Coyote” or “Coywolf”. They are bigger than their western counterparts and do have wolf lineage.
Outside my house in central New Jersey a few nights ago.
https://youtube.com/shorts/-8nAM4JHLEU?feature=share
Here in GA, you can hunt coyotes 24 X 7 X 365, and CAN use IR lights and NODs. You can even bait the field. Rifle v bow varies by county/city.
Same for feral hogs.
I live in a nice area north of Scottsdale, AZ. Kind of large houses in 2 acre lots. Used to have gravel roads, now paved and $$$$ homes being built. More garbage for the coyotes, javelinas, etc. I’ve had a small pack of coyotes stalk me and my dog. It was pretty frightening. I go into town now for walks. They come where the food is.
If you have ever had one of these things stalking your children (like I have) you would understand how serious this issue is.
The coyotes were yipping all night in woods behind my house.
Just to clarify, MarkTwain, I was responding to the article- out of a kneejerk reaction to remembering how horrified I was to see a cayote creeping up on my children when we were outside playing.
I was not responding to you personally or implying that you didn’t understand the severity. I am glad you posted this article.
I live in NE TN. When I take my dog out, I carry. Not hesitating to plug a coyote.
I’m not very worried about spotted coyotes. It’s the striped ones that concern me.
Yep, we’ve got them here in the Sacramento area. They’re fairly unobtrusive. I never see one and haven’t heard of anyone having their dog snatched off a leash. Out of a back yard, yes. By both coyotes and mountain lions. But hear the coyotes? Boy, do we ever.
I’ve noticed a correlation between these coyote appearances and our feral cat population: Just when there seems to be a feral cat everywhere you look, there’ll suddenly be one hellish night of coyote howling and yipping in the neighborhood. Then... no cats. Takes months for the cat population to recover.
I often want to tell all the little old ladies feeding all the feral cats around here, that they’re not really feeding the cats, they’re feeding the coyotes.
The increase in coyote is a direct result in the large increase in the deer population.
For the deer preying coyotes, stray cats and dogs are a bonus.
Look up the Caloosahatchee river in SW Florida. Until a few years ago they were never south of it.
Now they are ALL OVER. The *only* way across was that river, which is pretty wide.
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