PROJECT COYOTE DIRECTOR Camilla Fox calling for all Los Angeles residents to support the PROACTIVE COYOTE COEXISTENCE PLAN that she and Southern California PROJECT COYOTE Rep Randi Feilich are trying to get the Los Angeles City Council to pass.............. This proactive plan emphasizes public education and effective behavior modifications to reduce conflicts between people, pets and coyotes, something that the City of Chicago is beginning to embrace in recent days.........It should be noted that Los Angeles has long recognized that coexistence is the beter approach to Coyote management rather than "the shoot, shovel and shut up" management paradigm favored across other parts of the USA...................Yet, there is a vocal segment of SoCal residents that refuse to embrace the scientific evidence that repeatedly shows that trapping and shooting Coyotes only causes the remaining Coyotes to produce even larger litters of pups to fill the open habitat gaps that we create via this type persecutionl...................The literature is absolute on the fact that you would have to eliminate 70% of the Coyotes in L.A. every year into perpetuity to somewhat reduce their numbers...........This is both economically and morally the wrong approach and it has failed to reduce Coyote numbers since Europeans came to the Americas in the 1500's................L.A. is estimated to have 5000 "Songdogs"-----Time to learn to live with this "neighbor" of ours instead of making war on them..............Join Camilla and Randi and come out today, Wednesday August 3 at 9am to the L.A. City Hall or dial to listen into the meeting--- 310-547-CITY for San Pedro, 310-471-CITY for West Los Angeles, 213-621-CITY for downtown L.A. and 818-904-9450 for the San Fernando Valley.

LA Residents: Your Voice Needed! Please join Project Coyote Southern Cal Rep. Randi Feilich in supporting a proactive coyote coexistence plan for the city that emphasizes public education & outreach. The PAW Committee will debate the issue Wed. Aug. 3rd; meeting will take place in Room 1010 at Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., in downtown Los Angeles. Agenda: http://ens.lacity.org/…/clkcommitteeagend25105047_08032016.…

http://www.dailybreeze.com/government-and-politics/20160731/heres-the-next-step-in-los-angeles-contentious-coyote-debate

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CAMILLA H. FOX | FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 

PROJECT COYOTE | P.O. Box 5007 Larkspur, CA 94977 

Phone: 415.945.3232  | ProjectCoyote.org

FACEBOOK: ProjectCoyote |  TWITTER: @ProjectCoyote

Here’s the next step in Los Angeles’ contentious coyote debate





A coyote is shown here on June 6 at 5:45 a.m. in the area of 37th and Carolina streets in San Pedro.Photo by Geoff Portnall, @porty3 on Instagram



By Donna Littlejohn, Daily Breeze


POSTED: 07/31/16, 11:03 AM PDT | UPDATED: 12 HRS AGO
1 COMMENT







L.A. City Councilman Joe Buscaino spotted this coyote May 23 on the roof of his neighbor’s house in San Pedro. Photo by Joe Buscaino



A summerlong debate over urban coyotes — and what to do about them — will resume Wednesday when a Los Angeles City Council committee considers whether the city should do more than preach coexistence.

The Personnel and Animal Welfare Committee took no action June 29 on a motion by Councilman Joe Buscaino after animal services officials doubled down on their decades-old practice of relying on community education. Committee members will pick up the discussion at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

“The department strongly believes that the best approach to responsible coyote management or ‘control’ is ongoing education on how to coexist with indigenous wildlife,” stated a report prepared by the city’s Department of Animal Services.







HUMANE RESPONSE ENCOURAGED



The position is applauded by animal welfare groups such as Project Coyote, which has been closely following the new discussions.

Randi Feilich, the volunteer Southern California representative for the group, told council members in June that coexistence, rather than lethal policies, is more humane and effective.

“We support a proactive plan that emphasizes public education and effective behavior modifications to reduce conflicts between people, pets and coyotes,” Feilich said. “The city of Los Angeles has become a model and a leader in environmental stewardship with the ban on trapping.”





Increasingly, though, other cities, including Torrance, are opting to trap and euthanize coyotes in “hot spot” problem areas where the predators are seen stalking or killing pets, entering residential yards and behaving more boldly around humans than is typical for the species.

Critics of L.A.’s approach charge that officials there listen only to those animal rights groups that support education without ever considering trapping. They also have challenged the city’s 20-page report, saying it pales in comparison to more detailed coyote management plans in other cities.







OTHER RESEARCH



Mark Steinberg of Los Feliz — whose two medium-size dogs were attacked and killed in separate incidents by coyotes inside his fenced backyard over the past several years — urged council members in a July 5 letter to broaden the scope of their outreach to include findings of researchers who may disagree.

“I respectfully suggest that diversity of opinion is not something to avoid in framing and recommending a course of action on this important issue,” Steinberg wrote. “Rather, the Department (of Animal Services) should solicit a spectrum of opinion, specify the individuals with whom it consults and explain its decisions to accept or reject the views of those individuals.”







































Coyote activity has been especially high this year in San Pedro.

Feilich has offered Project Coyote’s resources to the city of Los Angeles through its Coyote Friendly Communities Program.

The services already being used in cities such as San Francisco, Calabasas and Albuquerque, New Mexico, include free presentations, workshops and public education materials.

“Scientific studies show that trapping does not work,” she told the council members.



RESIDENTS FRUSTRATED



But residents remain frustrated as reports multiply of pet attacks and coyotes clearing fences as high as 6 feet. It is thought that the increasing activity is due to higher coyote populations or to increasing levels of habituation around people.





“I have a small dog, but I always go out in the yard with her whenever she needs to go out as I, too, have seen these coyotes,” Graham Taylor-Letch wrote Friday on a San Pedro Coyote Watch Facebook page. “I keep a baseball bat next to the back door just in case one comes over the wall.”

Another resident, Janice Hill, wrote this on the same Facebook page Thursday: “This morning about 4:30 a.m. on Patton and 10th. A coyote had a cat. Sorry to say the cat was killed ...”

Residents are encouraged to keep their animals indoors at night and supervised during the day, even when they are inside their own fenced yards.







PRIVATE TRAPPING



Some homeowners have been trying to raise money to hire a private trapping company to do what they say the city should be doing on its citizens’ behalf.

Similar Facebook coyote pages fill up each day with reports of coyote issues, including the page titled Coyote Sightings in SFV (San Fernando Valley).

The NextDoor social media sites also regularly include posts about coyote incidents, such as one last week from a woman in Tarzana who posted that a coyote got into her fenced backyard and took the family’s small Pomeranian dog “right in front of our eyes.”





It happened at 9 a.m. and her family witnessed the incident through a large window in their home.

“When we ran after (the coyote) and yelled at him, he still would not let go of the dog whom we found a few minutes later dead,” she wrote.



WANT TO LISTEN IN?



• Wednesday’s committee meeting will take place in Room 1010 at Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., in downtown Los Angeles.

• Those interested also can listen live to the meeting by phone. The dial-in numbers are 310-547-CITY for San Pedro, 310-471-CITY for West Los Angeles, 213-621-CITY for downtown L.A. and 818-904-9450 for the San Fernando Valley.