Coyotes pose threat to outdoor pets

[Spring~Fields]

Coyotes pose threat to outdoor pets



Springfield resident Kathy Donovan charged into her back yard Wednesday morning to rescue her two dogs from menacing coyotes.

Donovan lives in the Kingsgate Commons development in northern Springfield. She knew coyotes lived in the brush and wooded area behind her home.

She was getting ready for work about 8:15 a.m. when she heard the warning.

“I heard Rudy bark, and it just wasn’t his normal ‘play bark,’” she said.

Donovan looked out the window and saw a coyote sitting inside her fenced back yard, watching her cattle dogs Rudy and Sadie. It was as large as an Irish setter.

“I absolutely freaked,” she said.

She ran into her back yard, grabbed Sadie and dragged her inside. The coyote did not seem intimidated by her, she said. It jumped outside the waist-high fence and began racing along its length while Rudy did the same inside the yard.

When Donovan returned for Rudy, she realized there was not one coyote outside the fence, but seven.Since 1998 the Clark County Humane Society has received a growing number of coyote-related calls, said the society’s Executive Director Ed Sisler.

The coyote sightings started in New Carlisle, then moved to South Charleston and then to South Vienna.

Two years ago the society started receiving calls from north Springfield.

The coyotes’ food supply has dwindled as their population increased, forcing them to look for food in more developed areas, Sisler said.

“Guess what he’s looking for?” Sisler said. “Cat. That’s dinner.”

Coyotes are omnivores and will eat carrion, fruits and vegetables, and small mammals.

The Humane Society sent three officers to Donovan’s house Wednesday morning, but they did not find the coyotes.

Sisler said they probably remained in the area.

Handling coyotes usually falls to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Division.

The Humane Society doesn’t want to infringe on the wildlife division’s territory, but it also needs to protect Springfield residents when coyotes pose a threat in residential areas, Sisler said.

No one from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Ohio law allows coyotes to be shot when they attack livestock but says nothing about shooting when pets are attacked, Sisler said.

Pet owners can take several precautions to keep their animals safe, like keeping their pets on leashes. Coyotes fear humans more than the reverse, Sisler said.

Homeowners can also erect 6-foot high privacy fences or buy a Barker Breaker, a device that emits loud noises that can scare coyotes.

Donovan said she will no longer keep her dogs in the back yard at night.

“I know they’re out there, but I wasn’t expecting them to be in my back yard,” she said. “It scared me.”

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/ne...35301503786741

Coyote Behavior
One of the most adaptable animals in the world, the coyote can change its breeding habits, diet and social dynamics to survive in a wide variety of habitats.

Alone, in pairs or in packs, coyotes maintain their territories by marking them with urine. They also use calls to defend this territory, as well as for strengthening social bonds and general communication. Coyotes can easily leap an 8 foot fence or wall. They have been spotted climbing over a 14 foot cyclone fence.

http://www.desertusa.com/june96/du_cycot.html

[RedsBaron]

A twelve gauge shotgun has its uses.

[TeamCasey]

We have a bunch of them in our woods too. I haven't seen one, but they howl and yip a lot. My neighbors see them. We stopped letting the cats out after dark.

We're not even rural.

[TeamCasey]

We also have pet issues with owls. Two people in my neighborhood lost small dogs to owls. Swooped right down and carried them off.

[remdog]

Welcome to the California lifestyle.

Rem

[RedFanAlways1966]

Scary stuff for pet owners. I think I need to train my little Jack Russell to use the bathroom toilet in the house.

I want to get angry at those coyotes and owls, but they are just doing what their instincts tell them to do. But I'd rather see a dead coyote/owl than a family grieving over a lost family pet. No doubt about that.

I guess it all relates to those of us who have to watch for deer when driving. The places these animals used to call home are shrinking everyday and they are trying to adapt as best they can. I guess something has to give... and I guess I have to side with the humans rather than people losing their pet or getting hurt in a deer-car accident. No simple solutions.

We are all God's creatures... but we cannot seem to all inhabit the same chunk of land.

[TeamCasey]

Don't get me wrong, I love that we have the owls and coyotes. I think it's awesome. You just take different precautions with your pets.

[TeamCasey]

...... those moles on the other hand ...... they're mincemeat!

[Spring~Fields]

After that story broke last evening I did some searches on the web regarding coyotes, and some sources indicated that they are a threat to small children along with domesticated animals, so I could imagine scenarios where the increasing population of these animals moving toward populated areas of people becoming a real problem eventually.

[Johnny Footstool]

We had a cougar attack here in good ol' Olathe, KS this summer.

[RFS62]

I lived up in Sabino Canyon when I lived in Tucson, and every night you could hear an entire pack of coyotes howling, just yards away in the desert. It was very cool, but I never had any run-ins with them. I didn't realize they were a problem in the east.

[Roy Tucker]

Coyotes have been spotted in our area, but we haven't seen any.

We've got a pretty decent sized woods and field behind our yard (roughly bounded by Fields-Ertel, Snider, Wilkens Blvd., and Irwin-Simpson) that a small herd of deer live in (I think about 8-10). We regularly see them in the field behind us. The township has plans to keep it a woods and make it a park.

We have a battery of bird feeders that we keep cause we like birds. One of the bad things is that hawks come every so often to pick off a bird or two from the feeders. A few times I've been working in the back yard and I notice the sun gets blotted out. I look up and there is a hawk swooping around the yard. He probably looking at me and thinking "we'll eat like kings".

And we often have owls hooting up a storm at night. Some of them are pretty big.

And the assorted moles, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, and skunks all make their appearances regularly. Had to call the critter gitter guy last year to get a mama skunk out from under our patio that have set up housekeeping. Our dog got skunked the year before and I wasn't going to live through that again.

[RedFanAlways1966]

...... those moles on the other hand ...... they're mincemeat!

Reminds me of my youth (I grew up in the country)... every now and then our neighbor would be out in his yard on a Saturday afternoon. Nothing unusual about that, except he would be toting a shotgun in his hands. He'd find those holes in his yard that were made and inhabited by the pesky moles. The end of the shotgun would be put in the hole and BAM! Not sure how many of those suckas died each year beneath his yard, but it was cool as a kid to watch the neighbor shoot a shotgun into the ground!

We used to also have problems with field mice coming towards the family home during the winter months (they wanted warmth). My father was pretty good with the trusty shovel. He'd have me or my brother bang stuff in the garage to scare the mice out. When he'd spot one... whack, over the head with the shovel. He used to do the same out by our woodpile in the backyard. The main problem we seemed to have with the mice was them building a nest in the underside of an automobile hood (just above the engine block) back when cars had insulation in there.

[westofyou]

so I could imagine scenarios where the increasing population of these animals moving toward populated areas of people becoming a real problem eventually.

The reverse comes into play too, many folks lose their pets (I have known a few) when they live in more remote areas. When I lived in the Bay Area a Coyote attacked a child in the foothills. at a park that I frequented.

It was a hiking park not a town park though.

6/13/96. A 3-year-old Palo Alto boy was attacked by a 2-year-old male coyote at the Windy Hills Open Space Preserve in Portola Valley, near Los Altos, CA. As the family was packing up the car after a picnic, the coyote used his teeth to grab the boy by the hand and drag him toward nearby bushes. The boy was playing with a Frisbee which was also bit by the coyote. The boy's 15-year-old brother scared away the coyote. The coyote was later trapped, and DNA testing (from the Frisbee) was attempted to make the id certain.

This was the first attack in the 25 year history of this Preserve. (Los Altos Town Crier 7/24/96)

[Spring~Fields]

I didn't realize they were a problem in the east.

They are reported to be in every county of Ohio. I thought that they were suppose to be afraid of people until yesterday, that article is speaking of the northern edge of town and they have a lot of housing in that area, it is not like it is far out in the country. The same lady that was interviewed in the article also said in a tv interview that they came to her back door via their garage. "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner"