Don’t let your pets become prey

By Sally E. Bahner

It’s 3am. Do you know where your pets are?
If they’re not sleeping safe on your bed, or at least in your home, shame on you.
Reports of coyote attacks on dogs and cats are becoming more frequent as the line is blurred between suburbs and wilderness.  In May the dogs of a Hamden couple, Labrador Retrievers weighing 100 pounds, were attacked when they ventured into territory inhabited by coyotes.  Department of Environmental Protection biologist Chris Vann reports 30 to 40 complaints a year about pets getting chased or attacked by coyotes.
Attacks on humans are rare, but the risk increases if the animal is fed near areas of human habitation; in 2006 a woman was bit on the knee at the MacDonald’s Interstate 95 rest stop in Branford after employees admitted to feeding the animal.
A survey of animal control officers in eight Connecticut towns by Paul Frisman in 2002 found that only East Hartford and South Windsor reported attacks on dogs attributed to coyotes. However, missing cats, livestock deaths and coyote sightings were reported in several other towns in the greater Hartford area. Sightings are frequent along the shoreline even in residential locales.
Although they are not native to Connecticut, coyotes have been residents since the mid-1950s when they moved into the northwestern corner of the state. They followed a path from the western states, north into Canada, south into Mexico and eastward. They now number between 3,000 and 5,000 in this state, perhaps more. It’s thought coyotes might have been filling a void created by the eradication of wolves and mountain lions (some claim mountain lions have been seen in Connecticut).  The abundance of prey such as deer and coyotes’ ability to adapt to their environment and diet have made them unwanted neighbors throughout the state.
Paul W. Rego, Connecticut DEP wildlife biologist, has studied coyotes extensively. He says coyotes can be frightened with loud noises and unnatural odors such as deodorant soap along their travel route. He recommends that residents remove food attractants such as pet food, table scraps on compost piles or fallen fruit. Vegetation that provides cover for prey and hiding cover for coyotes should also be removed and lower limbs should be trimmed away from shrubs and conifer trees. Rego also suggests using yard lights with motion detectors.
Rego offers the following common sense suggestions regarding our pets: keep pets in fenced areas or kennels; limit time outdoors, midday is preferred to over night, dusk and dawn; and supervise your pet when outdoors.
Rhonda Twiss of the University of Connecticut Home and Garden Education Center writes affectionately about coyotes.
"We don’t need to worry about coyotes becoming problematic in residential areas if we are vigilant in preventing them from acquiring food from us and associating humans with filling their bellies," Twiss writes. "For coyotes, hunting and consuming small mammals is an environmentally stable strategy, they shouldn’t modify their food habits unless humans make new ways of attaining nutrients needs easy and reliable."
That could be translated into the family dog that wanders off unsupervised or the cat that does not live in a safe space.
Twiss adds that coyotes are attracted to and can mate with unspayed or unneutered domestic dogs; unspayed female dogs in season will attract male coyotes and unneutered male dogs can be lured away by the scent of a female coyote. There have been cases of male dogs being lured by the female coyote’s scent and then killed by male coyotes, she says.
A hand-out from a local police department states that coyotes are not discouraged by Invisible Fencing systems and that a sighting during daylight hours does not mean a coyote is rabid since they have a low susceptibility to the "raccoon" strain of rabies; more likely they are searching for food for their pups.
Call them vermin if you will, but the bottom line is that we must learn to co-exist with these creatures. They will not be eradicated by building more McMansions, relocation, leghold traps or poison.
Pets are our companions and we are responsible for their safety. They should be where any good companion belongs – by our side. When you hear that howl in the middle of the night, reach out and stroke your pets and know that they are safe. n
For more information on Coyotes in Connecticut visit http://www.ctwoodlands.org/ctwoodlands/spring'99/coyote.html.
Residential Coyotes: Connecticut’s Own Wild Dog by Rhonda Twiss: http://www.ladybug.uconn.edu/ResidentCoyote.htm.
Sally Bahner is a member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and offers feline consultation services. She is "Dear Sally" on Tracie Hotchner’s Cat Chat Radio (www.catchatradio.com), found on Sirius Satellite Radio, Martha Stewart Living channel. She is a longtime editor and writer on everything feline.