Coyotes blamed for attacks on pet dogs in KC suburb
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Most were pets snatched from their backyards late at night or early in the morning.
Jawn Collins said two coyotes attacked her Australian terrier on Christmas Eve in her backyard. Although Collins and her husband scared off the coyotes, their 11-pound terrier died three days later.
“I can’t tell you how much this upset the family,” Collins said. “It is a very bad memory — a very, very bad memory.”
Leawood Police Chief John Meier said he has consulted with animal control and others about how to solve the problem. The animals are too smart for cages, Meier said, and he worries that pets would get caught in foothold traps.
“If we take some action against them, we’re probably going to kill them,” he said, because releasing them elsewhere would create a problem for someone else.
Charles Lee, a wildlife specialist with Kansas State University, said the problem of urban coyotes is increasing because the animals are becoming unafraid of humans.
“That doesn’t mean they see humans as prey,” Lee said. “They just don’t see them as predators now.”
Lee said Leawood apparently has a pair or a small pack of aggressive coyotes that have found it’s as easy to catch small dogs as it is to catch squirrels and other rodents, their usual prey.
Several residents who have lost their pets want the coyotes trapped and euthanized, but other residents don’t want the coyotes killed.
“Those who lost a pet are certainly very vocal, and rightfully so,” Lee said. “But there may be just as many people saying it’s more a people problem than a coyote problem. Coyotes are just doing what they do, and that is eating to survive.”
Some residents fear that a coyote could attack a small child, but such attacks are extremely rare. Lee said the only one he knows of occurred in California in the 1980s.
Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
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