Thou Shalt Not Kill … Coyotes
I’m not making this up.
UPDATE: Reader Clint Taylor informs me that you can’t shoot mountain lions in Palo Alto, either. That sounds about right. Even here in the O.C., the presumption appears to be in favor of the aggressor animal. Nearby Whiting Ranch, where a mountain lion killed one bicyclist and seriously injured another earlier this year, has plenty of signs warning you that you could be attacked, while other signs inform you that you cannot carry a gun anywhere in the park. Maybe to save space, they can come up with a new sign that just says “Warning: we can’t protect you, and you can’t, either.”
October 12th, 2004 at 10:52 pm
I remember taking a mountain lion revolver while hiking before.
Someone should just shoot one of these damn things and be done with it.
October 12th, 2004 at 11:08 pm
It’s nothing a .22 won’t take care of. :evil:
October 12th, 2004 at 11:19 pm
There was a guy in Vancouver BC a while back who fought off a mtn lion with a knife. However, guns or knives aren’t exactly the first line of defense against mtn lions because they try to strike from behind, biting your neck.
There’s a coyote problem in the areas around Griffith Park in L.A. I don’t know if our local ijits have approached the level of the SJ council however.
The way to at least lessen this problem is to not leave food (of any kind) laying about and to scare them off so they don’t lose fear of humans.
There was a coyote standing in an empty grassy picnic area in Griffith Park recently. A few cars had stopped to look at the nice pet. I got out of my car and ran towards the beast, but he came back. Even pretending to throw a water bottle his way resulted in the same thing. After a nice hike he was still there. That tells me he’s used to getting fed by “kind” humans.
October 13th, 2004 at 5:42 am
Here in TN, ‘yotes are considered varmints and can be shot on sight, year round. Hence, you don’t see very many as the learn to stay away from people.
October 13th, 2004 at 8:46 am
Recently, I read an article in the local Los Gatos, CA newspaper in which the environmentalist-author insisted that killing coyotes near your home will make the mom coyotes angry and cause them to reproduce more offspring to protect their demographic database thus causing a greater coyote problem. Said author claimed the better method of coyote control was to catch them and return them back to the Santa Cruz mountains to be back with their families.
October 13th, 2004 at 10:53 am
There is a golf course I play on in NC that has coyotes living off of the 17th. Ball goes bye bye if they are out there. Another has Red Fox’s on it, little SOB’s will literally walk within 10 feet of you. Ball thieves, too :shock:
October 13th, 2004 at 7:10 pm
I agree that there needs to be some sort of monitoring and managing of the wild animal population. I also agree that if wild animals endanger the lives of humans then human life takes precendence. However, as people seek to isolated themselves from the rest of society by building further and further uop into the foothilsl and along the urban/wild land interface then they shoudl expect that bear, lions, coyotes, racoons, and deer will visit them occasionally. I think it’s sort of funny that people living behind a gate because they think the rest of society is a threat to their way of life now have to contend with a creature that does not understand their particualr paranoia about crime and “unseemly people.”
October 13th, 2004 at 10:10 pm
There was no evidence that the one they killed in palo alto was aggressive. It was sitting calmly in a tree; they killed it on the general principle that they couldn’t take the risk that it might be aggressive.
October 13th, 2004 at 11:53 pm
The cat in Palo Alto had already mutilated two horses near Stanford. They killed it on the general principle that a nearby school was about to let out. Besides, mountain lions sit calmly in trees and ledges because they’re waiting for something edible, like a jogger or cyclist, to pass underneath so they can drop down and bite it on the neck.