Expert: Stephen Vantassel - 7/18/2007

Question
Did you hear about this?   Here's a link to a local news report:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5482260
I was shocked and disgusted when I learned of this.  I don't know how long Coyotes have inhabited Golden Gate Park- probably since it's creation- but seems an extremely unjust way to solve the problem. I was wondering what your view is and if there are any animal rights groups or agencies that can intervene in order to prevent future executions.  I read that in the past, relocation has not worked.  A more likely scenario is the location chosen didn't work.  I haven't been able to find any information regarding opposition to the Dept of Fish & Game's decision.  Apparently officials at both local & state level have known of the coyotes long before recent reports which led to the executions (ordered by Fish & Game, then carried out by Dept of Agriculture).  I think the public needs to be educated better on how to coexist and respect wildlife especially in heavy populated urban areas.  Do you have any idea if anyone is as upset about this as I am?????

Answer
Oh, I am sure there are plenty of animal rights protest industry groups who will be willing to take your money and your time to "fight" this action from ever happening again.

If you want to find an animal rights protest industry group, I would suggest the animal protection institute http://www.api4animals.org/    HSUS   http://www.hsus.org
http://www.animalrights.net  I suspect would also have a myriad of potential contacts.

Now for a few things you should consider before engaging in this crusade. 1. Translocation of coyotes has been proven not to work. For a number of reasons. a. Coyotes can cover hundreds of miles. b. where in America are we supposed to put them? Name a place in the U.S. where we have hundreds of miles of unbroken forest that doesn't have coyotes already living there where introducing a new coyote will result in competition, possible disease spread and possibly fighting. Doesn't sound very humane does it?

2. Have you considered that the coyote may have lost its fear of people, making it a threat? If you are really interested in reading about the potential risks, take a look at Dr. Timm's article http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/vpc21/1/

Would you be just as outraged at officials for not taking action against the coyote if it happened to kill a child? What about if it was your child? How would you feel if some group was telling the public coyotes are our friends after losing a friend or child to a coyote attack?

3. You are quite right we need to have better education of living with wildlife. That is why sites like the http://icwdm.org try to teach people how to prevent wildlife problems. But as you know teaching is easy, getting people to implement the ideas is another matter. Nevertheless, even if the public followed all of our advice, conflicts would still arise. There would be fewer of them, yes, but they would still exist.