posted May 21, 2008
Re: the news piece about coyotes:
Reliable knowledge shows that when coyote populations are shot, poisoned or trapped, the litters increase in number to maintain the population that the landscape can support. One only has to look at aerial photographs to see that a good many folks in this area live in populated areas surrounded by woodlands.
The howls people hear from the packs are in coyote language the words, "put the cat out," or dog or rabbit or chicken. We raise chickens, and I tell visitors partially in jest we have a wildlife feeding station. I get furious when I lose a bird. I realize though, I live in the edge between the suburban and the rural.
I won't hunt these animals, I do keep the dogs and cats vaccinated and I leave my scent and the dogs' scent everywhere here to let those critters know this is not their range. It works for my poultry. Every evening
walk my wife and I take we hear a local pack howl back and forth.
I have no need to try to remove it. I realize mother nature is here and will be long after we've gone to sleep or tried to eradicate it. The irritation with animals like that should let people realize we are not alone or superior, nor are we master of the landscape - no matter how pretty we fix up the place with buildings and plantings.
While we rail about coyotes, we let our gutters fill with West Nile virus and totally miss similar plagues we have wrought upon ourselves. City Council would do better service to educate the public about standing pools of water and vaccinating their pets than chase after the most classic native American symbol of craftiness, the coyote.
Prentice Hicks
slycreek@comcast.net
* * *
The first time Prentice has a child or grandchild of his dragged off the playground by a coyote, like in California, he will change his mind.
There is no need for coyotes to be coming close to humans unless one, there are too many of them or two, they have lost their fear.
I am not even going to ask what he meant by leaving his scent around his property. Yikes.
Johnny Franks
seechatt@yahoo.com
* * *
Hear, hear for Mr. Prentice Hicks. I'm delighted by the higher mindset of the intelligent, compassionate, and wise. The get-me-my-gun mentality of those of the lower mindset causes me to lose faith in mankind. Coyotes can be pesky but they're not harmful. Like the good Mr. Hicks I would encourage those affected to use their God-given brains and do no harm to these creatures who mean none but only want to live, same as you and me.
Please don't make up stories about how you're protecting your own from wild beasts. We're mankind, coyotes are our own, too.
Attorney Nelson who is quoted as saying, ""Nothing precludes a person from shooting a gun within the city limits. Just be sure you know what you are shooting at and aim carefully," needs to rethink. Few who own guns are marksmen, though all fancy themselves as such, and carefully aimed bullets still miss and ricochet. I shudder that any official would irresponsibly give the go-ahead to open season on anything within the city limits.
David Saluk
* * *
Don't hurt the poor little things; they're only doing what comes naturally. Check out Middletown, N.J., last spring. In a population of over 66,000, a five-year-old and a 20-month old were attacked by coyotes. Also last year, in New York state, an 11-year-old child was quoted as saying that the coyote lurking in his backyard wanted its dinner. He was referring to his younger sibling; and the coyote wasn't allowed to feed there that day.
So mankind should also be allowed to do what comes naturally, and protect what he feels needs to be protected. The those-who-would-never-touch-a-gun, holier-than-thou, informed-only-when-and-on-what-I-want, even lower mindset causes me to lose my faith in mankind.
Could the coyotes be trapped and relocated to mean no harm on Mr. Saluk's property?
Macel Holloway
Signal Mountain
* * *
David Saluk are you serious? I laughed out loud.
Coyotes are not harmful? Tell that to the toddler that was drug off the playground and to the nanny playing tug of war with it. Oh, I guess the coyote just wanted to play. Sweet little thing.
Repeat after me, David, wild animal.
Cliff Sarbel
* * *
As some of you may know, the coyote is not native to the East. The species migrated from the West because the East has no top predator remaining, namely the red wolf. Many years ago, the red wolf lived peacefully as the East's apex predator and never bothered anyone. In a decimating and sad series of events, we humans obliterated their numbers because so many falsely believed myths that wolves are horrible man-eating, baby-stealing, livestock-eating creatures.
The natural order of things has been disturbed and now we face coyote issues. Coyotes have been here since the 1970s. We simply have not seen them because their habitats were undisturbed for the most part. In today's society of more is better, developments have fragmented coyote habitats and taken over many. Coyotes are forced to travel through and live near areas where humans have taken up residence. They are better than the red wolf at living in urban and suburban situations. It amazes me that anyone with a gun can now shoot coyotes within the city limits. This could certainly cause accidental shootings or mistaken shootings ("Well, it looked like a coyote to me...").
Coyotes are known to produce more litters when their numbers are down as long as food is available. Common sense is the best solution to this issue.
If you have small children and you know of a coyote in your area, don't let them play unsupervised and don't let them play outside from evening to morning when coyotes are more active. Don't give coyotes an easy meal - don't feed or water the family pet outside. Don't leave garbage cans unsecured within easy reach. Some coyotes will even watch bird feeders to snag an easy meal. Also, don't make your property a comfortable place for them to live. Keep your shrubs trimmed and if you see a coyote, yell and scream at it from a distance, bang pots and pans together to make them not enjoy being in your space; don't ever approach one. Keep your pets' vaccinations up to date.
If you have a coyote that has become a nuisance, call a licensed trapper and let these professionals handle the situation. You can find listings for trappers at www.chattanooganaturecenter.org.
Tish Gailmard
Signal Mountain
* * *
Oh, how the emotions pour when the territory of the fluffy coyotes, God's cute bundles of joy, are invaded by the bad man. To be honest, I like having them in the neighborhood because they eat the unwanted pets that are dropped off at the end of our street. At night I close my eyes and hear the song of the coyote. It whisks me away to another world where tumbleweeds blow and business is done at the corner saloon.
Give me a break, people. They are wild animals and are a nuisance. Funny how folks have no problem killing rats in their house, but are taken back when someone wants to do the same with a wild dog roaming around in their back yard.
What is also silly are the people who think that blood is now going to run in the streets when snipers start picking coyotes off during little Johnny's birthday party. Nothing changed. There was no new law passed, there is no coyote jihad in the works, and there is no reason to panic. Please understand that there is NO law against discharging a firearm in the city, but if you hunt a coyote the TWRA has a restriction on the books that you aren't supposed to hunt within 100 yards of a dwelling. Also it does not prevent the police from investigating a "shooting" in progress. In other words...you still have to tread on eggshells of you want to shoot a coyote.
To all you non-shooters. People are best served by culling one, granted they get within respectable range, using a shotgun. A shotgun very easily hits what it is aiming at and will not blow a hole through the neighbors house or behave like a television death ray. Actually a bow might not be a bad idea either. You will only get close to one very early in the morning when nobody else is around. This is not a horrible thing. People have an irrational fear of coyotes not unlike the fear of spiders. In other words they see one and they want it gone. They will do what they have to to rid themselves of vermin. If they don't shoot it, they will resort to draconian measures such as poisoning...a practice that is quite dangerous. They might snare one and just leave it to die. They also might trap one and then go out and whack it with a ball bat.
This is common sense people - obviously something most of you lack.
Matt Craigge
Chattanooga
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