Fish and Game may help trap coyotes

By: PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer | Friday, July 16, 2004 11:48 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- The California Department of Fish and Game may get involved in trapping and killing coyotes at a senior community in the city's southeastern corner.

Lt. Mike Ference said Friday that he and a group of other employees from the department's San Diego County office will visit the Ocean Hills Country Club gated community Saturday to interview a dozen or more residents who have reported dead or injured pets or close encounters with the predators.

Ference said he will use information gathered in those interviews to decide whether the coyotes are a public safety concern.

"If we find there is a public safety issue, then we will call in a federal trapper to catch the animals," Ference said, adding that the trapper would put all captured coyotes to death.

Coyotes have become a growing concern for some in Ocean Hills, located in southeastern Oceanside along the border of the 110-acre Calavera Preserve in Carlsbad.

A dozen families in the 1,600-home senior community have said in complaints to their homeowners association that coyotes living in the preserve have become bolder in recent months ---- jumping fences to enter back yards and sometimes making off with small dogs and cats. On Thursday, the community's board of directors voted unanimously to hire a private exterminator to trap and kill some of the coyotes.

Some Ocean Hills residents and many animal rights groups said area residents could learn to live with coyotes if they would adopt certain habits, such as keeping food and pets indoors and using light and noise to scare the coyotes away.

Some residents in favor of killing the coyotes said they have tried all common-sense measures to scare off the coyotes, but that the animals still enter their small back yards to attack pets, sometimes with humans only a short distance away.

From the beginning, resident Lani Gilles has opposed plans to kill the coyotes. She said Friday that she believes residents who favor extermination are exaggerating the problem. In the end, she said she can't stomach the notion of killing one animal because it may have killed another.

"You can't blame an animal if it's hungry. What is the point of killing back?" she said.

Sondra Johnson has been a de facto leader of those in favor of killing the coyotes.

She has talked to her neighbors and has reported that three have had their small dogs killed in the last two months. She noted that many more residents have observed coyotes in their back yards and still more have seen coyotes following behind residents as they walk their dogs through Ocean Hills, which surrounds a private golf course.

Johnson said Ocean Hills will not bring in a private trapper until after Fish and Game officials decides whether to get a federal trapper involved. Fish and Game law allows licensed, private companies to kill coyotes if they have destroyed private property.

"All I know is, I think it's probably better to have Fish and Game handle it" than to bring in a private trapper, Johnson said.

Ference said he and his fellow Fish and Game employees will try to determine through interviews with residents whether coyotes in the area really are as bold as Johnson and others have reported. The decision should be announced Monday. He said coyotes bold enough to jump into small, enclosed back yards with residents present are a cause for concern.

"With this many incidents of coyotes killing dogs and confronting people, we want to be involved," Ference said. "This is a warning that we need to take a deeper look at this."

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.

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