As a 20-year resident who combs our open land looking for nature, I am shocked and deeply saddened by the killing of these coyotes. Since there was no emergency, the local agencies should have worked together and maybe someone would have learned that killing does not work.

Killing the mother coyote and her puppies actually makes things worse, as now the other females will go into heat immediately and more puppies will be born and this cycle will continue until a new alpha female is established in the pack.

I am in the Wildhorse area on almost a daily basis working with people and their dogs and will say the biggest threat to anything in the area are the number of off-leash dogs! This is another people problem, not a coyote problem. You have developed all this ag land and made way for the fake green hills of the golf course and are surprised you now see a coyote or two.

You buy a house that borders open space, plop your fat house cats outside and are surprised when hawks and coyotes snatch them out of the tall grassed buffer areas. Your take your dogs off leash and let them run in this open space chasing wildlife and then you complain that you got scared of a coyote. Please keep your dogs on a leash, and in border areas, your cats inside.

I have been watching these coyotes and checking in on them, amazed at how beautiful they are and how fortunate we are to have them here, and now they have been trapped and shot. This is not a coyote problem, it is a people problem.

I am shocked that Davis can’t figure out how to live with nature. Coyotes are a vital and natural component of the ecosystem in Yolo County and we will see more of them because there are nice fat wild turkeys everywhere and we have pushed into the last wildlife areas.

I urge community members to tell officials to cease “coyote abatement programs” and instead work with wildlife organizations to implement a proactive, humane program that prioritizes coexisting with Davis coyotes vs. trapping and shooting them.

Cayce Wallace

Davis

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