Over the last two months two coyotes have been spotted all over Magnolia and Queen Anne, and over the last several weeks reports of their increasingly aggressive behavior have been pouring in. After much deliberation the Department of Fish and Wildlife made the decision to set traps for the two coyotes earlier this week, successfully catching and euthanizing the larger male this morning, sparking much controversy over whether or not this was the right course of action.
Reader anyailleswrote in the comments,
Now all you jerks who complained about the coyotes being “too bold” can feel proud of yourselves. They will be killed. These animals are lost. They deserve a ride back out into the country.
We pride our city for its wild spaces like Discovery Park. We pride our wild spaces for their ability to harbor and attract wildlife. Yet when these animals wander from the small confines we betray them. Disgusting.
Many others shared the sentiment that the decision to to kill the animal was hastily made. However, Fish & Wildlife Enforcement Capt. Bill Hebner said the result was an unfortunate, yet inevitable, response to a number of attacks on people – not just pets – living in Magnolia.
“It’s very important that the community knows this was not in response to people who had their pets attacked,” Capt. Hebner said. “This decision was not taken lightly. In our assessment we felt that there was a human health and safety risk. It was our last resort and it is not something we relish doing.”
The Dept. of Fish & Wildlife consulted with the Seattle Police Department and the USDA after hearing several reports of the coyotes threatening Magnolia residents, in most cases those with small animals. In one instance a man had to pull his dog into his arms as one of the coyotes backed them against a wall. A cyclist riding through Discovery Park was forced to get of his bike and use it block his body from a coyote that had been circling him. But the most unsettling instance, Hebner said, happened when a woman opened her front door to walk her dog and a coyote that had been standing across the street bolted, attacking them both in the doorway of her home. The woman happened to be holding an umbrella at the time and was able to use it to fight off the coyote, but this, according to Hebner, was too close a call.
“I can’t ask the community to live with that,” he said, clearly upset at the fact that the animal had to be to put down. The sad irony, Hebner said, is that the situation could have been avoided. Like other wild animals that live in close proximity to people, such as raccoons and bears, these two particular coyotes had been “food conditioned”. By eating pet food and garbage that people left outside their homes, the animals developed an association between humans and food, ultimately resulting in their loss of fear for people and increasingly aggressive behavior.
“It’s not the animals’ fault. They’re just reacting to what we’ve done,” Hebner said. “There’s no reason why the coyotes should have to pay the ultimate price. We as humans need to change our behavior and be better neighbors to these wild animals.”
In response to those who wonder why the department opted to kill the animal, rather than try to relocate it, Hebner says that unlike bears, which can be conditioned to live in the wild after similar instances, coyotes are not able to reintegrate into the wilderness once they’ve lost their fear of humans. Beyond that, he estimates there is a population of around a dozen coyotes living in Discovery Park that should not have to move from their home to accommodate us.
“There always will be [coyotes] and always should be,” he said. “You can blame the Dept. of Fish & Wildlife all you want, but the reality is it’s happened before and it will happen again unless we finally decide as a community that we can change it.”
Hebner, who has been with the department for over 34 years and used to live in Magnolia, suggests that residents not leave their cats outside overnight unsupervised, avoid walking their dogs without leashes, and lock up any food that could condition a coyote. It is our responsibility, he said, to stop this cycle of behavior from perpetuating.
As for the second, smaller coyote, believe to be a female, Hebner said the department has no plans of trapping it. “We’re backing off our capture efforts and giving her a second chance, if you will,” Hebner said, noting that without the aggressive ringleader, the other coyote may continue to be a “member of the neighborhood” without any future trouble.
If, however, community members continue to experience incidents of aggression or threats from coyotes, Hebner said they should report it to either SPD or the local Fish and Wildlife (at 425-775-1311). But the most important thing, he said, is that everyone does their part to interrupt this pattern of behavior in the future.
“If one percent of a community are inadvertently feeding wildlife, it ruins it for all of us,” he said.
