In the last few weeks in Gloucester County, Virginia-- where I live, across the river from the famous Yorktown Battlefield—-friends and acquaintances report that they’re losing pets and cared-for feral cats to coyote attacks. I trust these sources, and the reports are coming from various parts of our semi-rural county, so the problem appears to be widespread.
At this point I’m trying to gather information, and have contacted a local reporter who should be able to separate the facts from hearsay and circumstantial evidence. At present, it does seem clear that coyotes are killing cats and dogs in my area in a way that hasn’t happened before, even if at this point the scale of the problem is unknown.
This situation raises distressing ethical issues. As readers of this blog know, my husband and I are active in cat rescue work. And, when I am speaking about ‘Being With Animals’ on the radio or during a public lecture, and mention our cat work, people will comment that many birds – and other small animals- must be killed by the cats we help save. Isn’t work on behalf of feral cats contributing to serious loss of, and suffering by, birds and other wildlife?
I’ve never had an easy answer for this question. I don’t see a lot of evidence of cat-hunting behavior at our colony – feathers, dead animals, and so on-- but that doesn’t prove anything. I just don’t know how much they are killing. I can easily imagine how, for birders especially, this situation is upsetting.
On the other hand, the work we do is dedicated equally to two premises: feral cat numbers must be reduced as dramatically as possible (that’s why we spay-neuter all feral cats we can trap), and while they are alive, feral cats deserve to be cared for and free of hunger and threat. I can’t back off from these principles.
Now, with coyotes threatening some local cats, both feral and domestic (though not, to date, ours), a set of parallel questions arises. Shouldn’t, by sheer consistency of logic, the coyotes be allowed to satisfy their hunger by hunting whatever animals they target? No, I don’t think so. The coyotes are coming into peoples’ yards and that presents a degree of danger – to pets and to children as well as to feral cats— that makes the coyote vs. cat circumstance different than the cat vs. bird one.
Should the coyotes be shot and killed, then? I can’t get behind this plan. Coyotes are living creatures and I won’t join the local hunting party that some are talking about forming. Is it feasible to trap and remove the coyotes from the area? Where would they go? Who will pay?
I have no answers. Just lots of questions, and a big worry that all this is going to end very badly for animals.
Comments
The cats you feed don't HAVE to hunt birds and other wildlife, because you feed them. I would imagine that cats without catch-neuter-release-feed caregivers ARE a threat to the general ecosystem, but that tended pods like yours have a much smaller impact.
I hope your community comes to a thoughtful, reasoned solution. I know it must be painful for you. :(
That being said, I strongly support spay-neuter-release of feral cats as a way to stabilize those particular populations. That being said, much as I hate the idea, contending with predators including coyotes is a part of feral cat life. My wholly unsubstantiated theory with increased coyote predation nearer to human habitation is 1) too damn many people encroaching ever further upon "wild" places, 2) feral and pet cats/small dogs are an increasingly plentiful food source, easier and more consistent than deer or rodents, 3) coyotes who are able to supplement their diet with pets may raise more pups, and 4) coyotes teach their pups hunting skills, so the increase of pet-aware-and-hunting coyotes may be growing faster than coyotes who are shyer about near-human contact.
My personal (and laughable) solution to coyotes is to increase the coyote predators, obviously unworkable with current human settlement! Or else reduce the ready food source (pets inside, outside in coyote-proof runs or supervised, no kibble left out).
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I have a friend who has lots of animals and lives in an area with coyotes. She brings the cats indoors at night or when no one is home. No pet food is left outside that might attract coyotes. Her chickens are securely penned, but she lost young chicks to a hawk when they were unsupervised. She also recently lost a foolish rooster who seems to have stuck his head through the wire mesh. Only feathers were found, so it's likely that a coyote or similar dragged him through the fence. Tragic, but she isn't going to attack the coyotes for expressing their natural behavior.
Remember, the phrase "good fences make good neighbors" also applies to our relationship with wildlife.
So, I think you are doing the right thing, Barbara. Let the wild be wild. Protect your small children and small animals by keeping them carefully guarded. Oppose firearms of all kinds, whatever their purported use.
I'll stop now.
Barbara S. and Peggy are both right, in my view, to continue to place the emphasis on human behavior and intelligent human solutions. All our domestic cats live indoors. It's hard for me not to worry because our enclosed sanctuary area for 11 former ferals is full-- we can't overcrowd it and this leaves our (spay-neutered) colony in "the wild" so to speak. But the human-devised solution just cannot be the shooting of coyotes.