Opinion: Seal Beach can’t simply trap and kill its way out of a coyote problem

At the point at which coyotes are following people into their houses, and killing dozens of pets within a small town in a short period of time, yes, it’s time to do something. Normally, trapping and euthanizing coyotes is a bad idea, for several reasons. But in Seal Beach, things have reached a point where removing the coyotes, as the city has decided to do, might be a necessary part of the response.

The coyotes are acting so bold there, so unafraid of people, that there is reason for concern about human safety. And these coyotes appear to have been trained, so to speak, to favor what they can find in the town. That’s probably because, with the drought, their pickings in the wild are slimmer, and also because people in Seal Beach have made city living a little too easy for the agile, adaptable creatures.

I sympathize. I live in coyote territory too (aren’t they just about everywhere in this region?), and neighbors recently lost their adorable Maltese to one. They had warned me a while back about a coyote that brazenly scrambled its way over their backyard fence and was standing right outside the dining room, staring at them.

Killing coyotes is not a long-term answer, though, and Seal Beach can’t repeat this over and over. As long as residents keep the town hospitable for the wild intruders, by leaving out uncovered garbage, pet food and sources of drinking water — and leaving pets outside that are small enough to be coyote prey — the coyotes will keep arriving. They’ll become harder to trap because only the stronger and cannier ones will survive.

Further, a body of research suggests that efforts to tightly control coyote populations backfire because the coyotes respond by breeding at a younger age and having larger litters.

So Seal Beach can’t eradicate its way to a safer situation. The best it can hope for is to eradicate coyotes that like to think of themselves as guests, ones whose version of helping themselves to the fridge contents means killing small pets. Then it has to go about creating a safer situation for the future.

That means strict, well-enforced ordinances banning open trash and the provision of any food for coyotes — including requirements to keep pet dishes (and preferably small pets) inside and ponds, fountains and pools covered or otherwise kept from coyote access to the extent possible. Seal Beach residents will have to learn to actively haze coyotes to make civilization an uncomfortable place. Carrying loud noisemakers and small rocks might be a good idea for a while. The city will need rules against allowing cats to roam outside; they’re prime coyote bait. And over time, it’s worthwhile to think about adopting dogs that are big enough not to tempt coyotes as prey.

If the residents aren’t willing to take some or most of these steps, they’ll be training a new generation of coyotes to think of their town as a cafeteria.

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