LAist has a post up today enlightening me to the previously unknown efforts of the nearby city of Arcadia to protect its imperiled citizens from coyotes by killing them — the coyotes, not the citizens. To date, some 15 have reportedly been snared and destroyed. LAist links to an ABC Local article, where one finds Arcadia Mayor Peter Amundson quoted apparently verbatim as saying:
“We were overwhelmed with people saying we are corned [sic] with coyotes in our community, we’re concerned about our animals. A few people mentioned to us, we have lost our animal [sic], but we don’t want to lose our children.”
I’m not sure what Amundson meant by “corned,” or the fact that the mayor seems to have trouble with subject/noun agreements (“…we have lost our animal…”), but I am sure disheartened by yet another kneejerk coyote cull and am reposting the following comment I posted at LAist along with a looping timelapse vid of the coyote I encountered last Thursday in Griffith Park, whose habituation to humans was obvious in its fearlessness of my proximity (it’s hard to see the creature in this small version so I’ve spotlighted its location in alternating frames):
My comment:
My faith in humans as reactionary quick-fix massacre makers is surpassed only by my faith in the coyotes ability to survive — and thrive — in spite of everything we throw at the species.
It’s been demonstrated that when coyotes suffer sudden population decreases, be it natural or man-made they simply increase their reproduction.
As to anyone who thinks coyote populations are “out of control” due to an absence of predators, that’s patently false. The coyote’s chief predator is us humans and we are certainly not absent. In ironic fact as much as we try to make the coyote extinct it is our arrogant habits of making food sources so readily available to them (and then being frightened and outraged that they exploit those sources) that has allowed them both to succeed and extend their reach into all manner of inhospitable environment.
Not too be too morbid, but go crazy Arcadia with your worthless short-sighted culls. Coyotes will be here long after we destroy ourselves, feasting on our corpses.
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