Coyote

I woke bright and early. Went outside to get the paper and noticed something black on my lawn adjacent to the curb. Upon further investigation I noticed it was in 2 parts: a portion of a tail and a part of a leg. Both which belonged to a poor kitty cat. At that moment in the midst of my shock, my neighbor across the street greeted me and said “yes, I am sorry to tell you I awoke early this morning and saw a coyote attacking a cat on your front lawn.” After doing a full cat inventory of our block. We determined that it was a poor little feral kitty cat that lived in a neighbor's backyard. The lesson here is: coyotes don’t always attack later in the day, they are up having breakfast with the rest of us.

It is easy to forget that we are in a desert here in L.A. Every once in a while nature will find it’s way back into our busy city. There has been an increasing number of reports in the community of coyotes in the Hancock Park and Windsor Square area.

Image by Distinguished Company

Here are the reports:

A coyote walked up to a front porch on the 700 block of S. Mansfield grabbed a small sleeping dog with it’s jaws and started to carry it off.  Another neighbor saw the incident and started screaming, which caused the coyote to drop the dog and run.  The dog suffered puncture wounds but is expected to make a full recovery.

There have been several recent reports of three or four coyotes roaming the area together packs, seen by various neighbors at 2nd and Norton, 9th and Hudson, and 12th and Citrus.   

Jason Greenman a Lorraine Blvd. resident reported: “We were faced with a coyote on our front lawn last night at 6:45 when we arrived home. He was definitely very healthy (well fed) and not at all skittish. I chased him all the way down the block.”

Mary Pickhardt reports that a coyote “seems to be very comfortable on the 100 and 200 S. blocks of Irving Blvd. There are several properties with dense foliage and he/she is often seen bouncing in and out of the shrubs.”

Julie Stromberg, a board member of the Windsor Village Association who lives two blocks south of Wilshire Boulevard tells how her dog, Elvis, was attacked by a coyote eight months ago and subsequently died. 

Amy Cohen, of Brookside, reported that three coyotes had been seen early in the morning at the corner of Longwood Ave. and Olympic Blvd.

Now the question is: What is the community supposed to do about it?

Los Angeles Department of Animal Services Officer Hoang Dinh, here quoted by the Windsor Square Association.

“I have been and will continue to patrol your area, especially 9th and Lucerne. This is the time of year where all the wild babies born in spring are now juveniles and learning the terrain. It may seem like more, but it is temporary (67% mortality rate for coyotes naturally) unless there is enough food to sustain them.  The most important thing to realize is this is also a very impressionable state, which we “Humans” should take advantage and haze without harming them.  If the juveniles want to learn, teach them that your residential area is no place for them.  Do not provide any source of food, such as access to garbage, uneaten fruits, pet food left outside and unfortunately even small pets left unattended, clutter and dense brush (the latter 2 harbors rodents).  Make sure if you all have holiday guests, to advise them to do the same. This is also a very good time to walk your pets with other people. Have at least one person carry a good size stick, to even throw towards the coyotes. Let’s give them little reason to hang around and remind them to stay naturally afraid of us.”

That being said, do not use poison on the coyotes. It is illegal and can end up killing other animals who find the poison. If you have a coyote problem call California Wildlife Services state office at 916-979-2675. I provide this information to my readers in hopes that you keep yourselves and our community safe.

These reports were gathered from pieces published by the Larchmont Buzz and the Larchmont Chronicle.