Costa Mesa is more a roadrunner kind of town

I was so glad to read that the Costa Mesa Animal Control Department

is now logging reports of coyote. I also hope records of activities

and attacks will be kept.

I am a Mesa Verde resident whose cat has disappeared. When our pet

of 14 years did not come home on June 6, I called Animal Control to

get some information and some help locating him. After several

conversations, I learned a lot about coyotes, limited budgets and

public servants’ priorities.

It was at this time that Sally Humphrey and I teamed up to create,

print and distribute our own information flier at our own cost. Thank

you to the many shop owners who allowed our flier to be posted and

all the others that helped spread the word.

I am pleased to know there is now a process and procedure to

gather information. This way, when there is a hot spot of activity,

the department representatives can approach the city with hard

evidence and request extra manpower to patrol, code enforcement

officers to enforce trash policies and overgrown vegetation and funds

for educational materials.

ESTELLE SEWELL HUGHES

Costa Mesa

With regard to humans and wildlife -- or more specifically, urban

and wild -- interaction, as reported the articles regarding the high

alert for coyotes, the most important ethical question to ask is:

Which party is encroaching on which? Are humans encroaching on the

coyote’s fair claim to territory, or is the coyote encroaching

unfairly upon human settlements? The increased incidences of urban

coyote sightings (and yes, in Mesa del Mar we have seen more this

season than in the previous five years) has everything to do with

human development.

When coyotes enter residential neighborhoods, they are looking for

food: There is nothing malicious about their actions. As long as we

humans provide food in the form of cats, dogs, pet food and garbage,

the coyotes will keep coming. In Mesa del Mar, coyotes are entering

the neighborhood via storm drainage channels by climbing over short

fences and moving through backyards along St. Claire and Drake

streets. Coyotes have been documented climbing 5 1/2- to 6-foot

fences; so one part of the solution, not mentioned in the Pilot

article, is to create a physical barrier of at least 6 1/2 feet.

It is also important to note that coyotes control meso-predators,

such as raccoons, skunks and opossums, so when we kill coyotes, we

risk tripling the balance of nature. These meso-predators can carry

rabies and may harbor life-threatening parasites, and their numbers

can climb drastically in the face of depredation.

However, I don’t blame our animal control officers: they are

legally prevented from relocating coyotes.

As for killing coyotes because it was utilizing someone’s backyard

for sleeping, I believe it would be better to simply scare the coyote

off and let it get back to balancing nature the only way it knows.

So, the next time you see a coyote, don’t call Animal Control,

whose options for dealing with this issue are severely limited.

Simply follow the rudimentary rules of coyote prevention as outlined

in the article, such as keeping pets and their food indoors, garbage

tightly secured, clear brush away from homes to remove hiding places

and keep constant vigilance over your young children.

Theoretically, if we limit the coyote’s food source in urban

areas, they will be required to search for prey in the transition

areas between wild and urban habitats. This should give us renewed

impetus to preserve the small amount of undeveloped land that, for

the moment, still exists.

JAY B. LITVAK

Costa Mesa