Coyotes call Costa Mesa home too, You’re Kidding!

Have you ever happened to noticed all the lost cat and dog signs in the Costa Mesa communities of Mesa Verde and the Westside of Costa Mesa?

Stop and think of how many parents, like me, who have lost animals... Who sympathetically rally up the kids to make lost pet signs, post them around the neighborhood when we know, deep in our heart, it probably was a coyote that got our animal. If you are surprised by what I am telling you then simply ask around, talk to your fellow neighbors. There are plenty of first-hand stories of small dogs being attacked in Fairview Park, of packs of Coyotes scurrying away from the trash dumpsters at Mesa Verde Country Club, and the many upon many sightings of coyotes, and the remains of the animals they have attacked and left behind.

Just this weekend on Jacaranda Street in Mesa Verde, Paul and Tuesday Ward were wildly awaken by a neighbor’s pounding on their door at 4a.m. Paul Ward came out of his home to find his beloved Mitts (a beautiful black-and-white cat admired by the neighborhood) barely breathing and badly hurt by an apparent coyote attack. Paul Ward rushed Mitts to the vet but it was too late. Upon coming home from the vet to tell his 11-year-old daughter about the terrible news, the same neighbor told Paul Ward, the coyote had returned to finish what he started a half hour later.

I later spoke with Paul Ward about what had happened, I said to him that I was sorry to hear about the loss of Mitts, he said to me, “Kurt, I was praying that Mitts was not breathing because I knew how much pain and suffering he was in from all the wounds.” What concerns me the most about what is happening is that if you look at Jacaranda Street on a map, you will come to the same conclusion that I did, “Wow, Jacaranda is really far from the Santa Ana River bed; the known super highway of coyotes in the area.”

Listen, I am not stoking the fire to get rid of coyotes, they have a right to live in our city. I am sympathetic to their fight for life as well. But, we can do a better job of educating our community to protect our pets, and our families too. Protect them by bringing pets inside at night; coyotes can leap over 6-foot walls and fences.

While Mother Nature is playing out in our communities, is it really my imagination that the coyote problem is getting worse? Is there something proactively we can do to protect the coyotes and our pets too?