In the last two weeks we've had seven separate encounters with coyotes. By encounters, I mean practically in our backyard. The most recent was our dog Bella chasing one from just past our garden through the field and a few days ago, there was one yipping in our front yard at 9:00 at night. When he stopped his bark, you could hear him walking through the grass, much closer than I am really comfortable with.
Yesterday, I chatted with our neighbor whose husband asked if she'd mind his shooting them if he met up with any while hunting. Two days ago, I spoke with the game warden, and his suggestion was also to shoot them if we felt disconcerted by their presence. I can't say I like this solution, but I must also admit that they've been a little too close for comfort. Because we've chosen to live where we do, is it unfair of us to consider killing these animals? They are predators and certainly have the power to hurt our pets (and the future animals we intend to keep). I hate to make that kind of decision. I'm crossing my fingers that they head back to the woods and keep their distance.
3 comments:
Do you know why they are there? My parents have recently been getting bears. They have not had bears in 15 years and now the bears are coming out. I'm wondering if something is out of wack up there. Like the coyotes being overpopulated, or being pushed out of their natural homes. What else do you know?
I know what you mean about them. Shooting them seems, well, scary. I wouldn't want to do it, but I wouldn't them around either. I don't know anything about coyotes. Are they dangerous? Like wolves? Are you worried about them attacking you and your animals?
I talked to the game warden and he said a couple of them could attack a dog Bella's size. We want to get chickens next year, and they would definitely kill them. I'm not worried about them attacking me, but when we met up with a large, grey one on our walk through the field the other day (Timmy, the dogs and me), I felt a little weird. There's nothing like a baby to make me feel much more vulnerable. I'm not sure about the population, though. I'm going to keep looking into it to try to have a better sense of the situation.
Coyotes are very dangerous, carrying several types of disease and a special lice that eats away at skin (can be very dangerous to domestic dogs). BE VERY CAREFUL!
Post a Comment