Like most people who live in the Valley, Brian Gallagher had heard stories of coyotes attacking pets. But when it came to his Maltese, Oliver, he wasn’t concerned. Over the eight years the family had lived in their Encino home they’d seen just three coyotes. “I wondered a couple of times,” says Brian, “should I build a fence? But with such infrequent sightings, I didn’t think it would happen to us.”
Paula Schwartz can relate; she has lost two dogs. Her husband let their shih tzu out in their Granada Hills backyard around 5 one morning when it was attacked by a coyote who had hopped a small wall. Trying to soothe their pain, the couple got another shih tzu. They were vigilant— until a slipup. “This time it was about 8 p.m. We were home and let the dog out for a run. About 8:30 we looked out and saw the dog, dead. It was devastating.” If you live in the Valley and you own a pet, you hear these stories often—especially in summer when coyotes give birth and become brazen, moving from the mountains to our backyards, on the prowl for food for their pups. In recent years, Valley dwellers feel like it’s gotten worse. Rebecca Barboza, a wildlife biologist with the California
And then it did.
Department of Fish and Game, believes coyote numbers
On an early Saturday morning, Brian was home with
have gone up. “It is likely that the coyote population in
his 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter. “I heard
urban areas is expanding, because (there) coyotes have
Oliver barking in the backyard and yelled for my son to
unlimited food, water and shelter,” she says.
let him inside. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a coyote jump into the backyard. I knew immediately what was going on.” The family’s screams caused the coyote to drop the dog and run off, but the damage was done. Oliver died four days later. “My son said he felt like someone had murdered a member of our family. We all felt like that,” he recalls.
“PEOPLE WHO’VE LIVED HERE A LONG TIME ARE SEEING COYOTES IN PLACES THEY’VE NEVER SEEN THEM BEFORE. AN URBAN COYOTE BREEDS AND MAKES MORE URBAN COYOTES.” 54
|
