I have mixed feeling about coyotes. On the one hand, over the years they have taken off with about 10 of my cats. However, with all of the development that has taken place, what else are they going to eat?
"What else are they going to eat?"
Lambs, ewes, a calf if they could get to it, and any human child it can corner.
Deer. Which is no reason not to hunt them.
The coyote is a desert wolf. Their natural habitat is strictly desert areas. Development in their natural habitat is less than a fraction of 1%.
They are simply having a population explosion and moving into empty predator niches in other areas.
In the desert their population should be controlled. Everywhere else they should be exterminated to restore the balance of nature and allow the natural predators, like bobcats, to recover.
SO9
OK, so they took off with about 10 cats which shows me that they are good for something after all.
Basically, it seems that these coyotes are just predators which kill off other critters which we use for food - deer, rabbits, etc. - while the coyotes are not good for food themselves. So, where is the problem in just killing them off for fun? Kinda like guys used to go to the dump with .22s and kill rats. And, from what I've heard about Maine's governor, Baldacci, anything that embarasses him must inherently be a good thing
I always figured that eating cats is the only socially redeeming value of coyotes.
I hope you're breeding cats like crazy.
Nothing. Shoot 'em. They're opportunists and choose to live near people who are a source of easy pickings. Like your domestic cats and dogs.