Our View: No need to fight over coyotes

By: North County Times - Editorial | Friday, July 23, 2004 9:52 PM PDT ∞

"What fools these mortals be," Zeus said. The father of the Greek gods was not talking about coyotes ---- he was talking about humans ---- but it's foolish to think that humans will ever do away with the coyote. Nonetheless, the residents of Ocean Hills Country Club in Oceanside are trying to do that in their 1,600-home senior community.

The California Department of Fish and Game said this week that it will call in federal trappers to try to kill the coyotes that are blamed for killing three pets and hurting or stalking others. The campaign against the coyotes has brought furious statements from humans on both sides of the issue.

One Ocean Hills resident said the presence of the coyotes has people feeling "like prisoners in our own village." After the anti-coyote campaign hit the newspapers, the manager of the country club said he received more than a dozen complaints sent by fax to his office, and a few threats.

Those are ill-considered overreactions from both sides. There is no reason for people to threaten one another because animals are being animals.

We feel sympathy for those whose pets have been killed by coyotes. But one of the attractions of Ocean Hills is that it's on the border of the 110-acre Calavera Preserve in Carlsbad. That's where coyotes live. It's a hot, dry summer and coyotes are attracted to water, wherever they can find it. Coyotes can smell water inside a garden hose, and they will chew it up to get to the water. And they'll chew up a cat or a small dog if they can find one.

The problem at Ocean Hills, if there is a problem, is that some coyotes may have lost their fear of humans. Putting the fear of humans back into them will not hurt the rest of the coyotes.

We think the coyotes will be more than a match for the trappers. The coyote, after all, ranges from Alaska to Panama to Maine. It can change its diet, its breeding habits and social organization when it's threatened. Coyotes are not above raiding melon patches when they're thirsty. Since California livestock ranchers conducted the state's first organized anti-coyote campaign in 1891, more than 500,000 coyotes have been killed in California, at a cost of $30 million in taxpayer dollars. And the coyotes are still doing pretty well.

We are more concerned about the way the people are treating other people than the way people on both sides are treating the coyotes.

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