Warn Your Neighbors About Coyotes on the Prowl

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The coyote attack that ultimately killed my terrier Crash last week was not an isolated incident.

I had gained a false sense of security from reading the New Canaan Advertiser's newcomer's guide, which says, "rarely have there been reports of coyotes attacking small dogs." This is no longer true.

New Canaan Animal Control has logged nearly 40 coyote sightings all over town since January. After a one-year-old Lakeland terrier was killed by coyotes in Wilton in 2007, Paul Rego, a wildlife biologist with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, said, "there's probably a dozen (reports) a year of dogs being attacked, probably more cases of cats being attacked. It's not an uncommon happening or occurrence."

Coyotes in the area are now said to be attacking larger dogs—which they may consider to be a territorial threat—and are increasingly bold around humans. Last week's attack occurred as my teenaged son was calling our dog just 50 feet away.

A Google search revealed several cases of people being attacked by coyotes in recent years not far from here.

In one instance a woman was bitten by a coyote at a Branford rest stop. The animal had reportedly been fed by humans and lost its fear. In another case a male jogger in Washington was attacked by a coyote. The vicious animal was believed to be rabid. Even more worrisome is the 2007 attack of a 20-month-old toddler in Middletown, NJ. The animal tried to drag the child away but the attack was thwarted by an older child.

In California—which has been coping with the challenges of coyotes in suburban environments far longer than we have—attacks on small children are no longer a rarity.

A 2004 report on coyote attacks over three decades in southern California lists 89 documented attacks on humans or pets in close proximity to their owners, resulting in 56 injuries. In an additional 77 cases coyotes stalked children, chased individuals, or aggressively threatened adults.

According to the report, "the safe environment provided by a wildlife loving general public... is thought to be a major contributing factor."

As in California, there seems to be a popular attitude here that coyotes have their place and nature can be cruel.  

While I don't advocate rounding up and randomly killing coyotes, we can certainly do more to raise awareness of their whereabouts, and trap and destroy animals with a track record of killing pets and menacing pet owners. This should be at government, not taxpayer, expense.

After my terrier was attacked, Animal Control recommended that I hire a private trapper because the coyote would likely return (which it did, with a friend, last night), and that there was nothing else the town could do.

Isn't the most basic role of government to protect its citizenry, including our furry friends? If a person were methodically killing house pets in New Canaan, would police do nothing, yielding to vigilante justice?

When there's a coyote sighting or attack in New Canaan we need to immediately mobilize so residents can be extra vigilant. Neighbors need to be alerted within hours; press releases to weekly newspapers may be printed too late as more pets are needlessly killed.

There's currently no official clearinghouse in which police, animal control officers, and citizens in New Canaan and neighboring towns—into and out of which coyotes roam—can exchange warnings and information, looking for patterns that indicate a dangerous predator is in our midst.

New Canaan Patch has mapped all of the sightings logged by New Canaan Animal Control so far this year and you can now add yours to alert the neighbors: http://patch.com/gAMG

I grew up in the West and I consider myself a naturalist and wildlife lover. I respect and appreciate coyotes and the role they play in our complex ecosystem. But I am also a mother and my appreciation of these animals ends with the safety of my family. I fear it's only a matter of time before a child in Fairfield County is attacked because we failed to heed the warning signs. And how many more pets have to die needlessly?