Yesterday, here in Massachusetts, a poor and sweet little white dog named “Lucy” was attacked and killed by coyotes when she was sent outside at 1 am to do her business in a garden that backed a heavily wooded area. Poor Lucy was not only killed by a pack of at least six coyotes, but more, her owners stepped out to find her and found the coyotes feeding off of the poor dog’s body. It’s a gruesome and horrible thing to happen to both dog and owner and I can only say that my heart does go out to the owners and that, were it my animal, I can only imagine the devastation I would feel, for even the simple and ordinary loss of an animal to age is one of the hardest losses one will ever endure. Ask anyone who has had pets and they’ll tell you, or you know yourself. It’s just hard, perhaps because of their innocence and sweetness. Whatever the case, what happened to poor Lucy and her owners is awful but I’m sorry to report not the first case of this kind in recent months and no doubt, will not be the last for one simple reason: we do not learn.
Here in Massachusetts and, no doubt, in other states with a any mentionable amount of rural area that is currently being developed, we are seeing a dramatic rise in the instance of animal and wild life clashes with humans and their pets that are, needless to say, not for the good.
This past week alone saw two family dogs mauled by wild coyotes that, in both cases as reported on the news, not only took the dogs down and injured them, but then stayed to feed on the bodies. To reiterate, the family looked out their back window and saw poor Lucy being mauled and eaten by the pack of coyotes who had emerged from the thick of the woods. Other reports from a few months ago had toddlers and young children attacked by coyotes as well, and others by raccoons and rabid squirrels, and more recently, I heard of a toddler who was attacked by, of all things, a rabid skunk. The child will now need nine months of tetanus treatment shots from the incident. The report noted, “The skunk was nowhere to be found.”
All reports state that this is happening more and more as we develop further and further into animals' natural habitat, which to me, makes perfect sense. We build roads and highways across deer migratory routes and then seem surprised when a deer runs in front of our car or any car, as if the deer, not us, should not be there. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s obviously an incredible loss to any family who should face a death because of a head-on collision with a deer or moose, but the key here is to learn from such incidents and work toward prevention, not to just stick up a few signs with cute animals on them and hand out yellow bumper stickers that say “I break for moose” because yes, you will break for moose but in ways you could never imagine.
Article comments
1 - SFC SKI
Before someone jups in and calls youi a granola eating tree-hugger, let me say I agree with a lot of your points.
I have seen some of my favorite places overdeveloped into unrecognizable places. Planners and councilmen don't see the value in greenbelts or parklands in many places in the US. It is a shame so many are so shortsighted in allowing this rampant ill considered development. Sure, we all want a place with a little property, but I can only wish that there was a better way to get it.
Here in FLA, I can't stand to drive to St. Pete, where the view to the Gulf is blocked by condoes, apartments and houses. I was fortunately to grow up in a places where the big state or national parks were out my back door, nad their was a big city an hour or 2 away. It spoiled me, and I hope to find a place like that again for my kids.
2 - sadi
best of luck, truly finding that place. i hope we all do.
irony is; i'm not at all granola eating treehugger and even if i were, i wouldn't be embarasssed by it. simple fact is, i'm not. i've lived in cities my whole life, was a long-time smoker (quit, so no more) and on and on and on. All that said, i don't think it takes much brains to see what has been going on in the news recently and why. My issue is that people seem surprised by such incidents - what they should be more surprised by is how all of America is beginning to look the same - or perhaps alarmed would be a better word. But coyotes or skunks or snakes in the forest? hmmmmm... do you think maybe they live there? Or perhaps there are those in favor of eradicating any species that might not be beneficial to housing development. Actually, now that i've said that, i would guess that there literally are companies trying to sort out ways of "friendlier, critter-free forests and wildlife!"
I know that isn't at all what you're saying, but now that i come to think of it, i think the above just might be a fair statement. wouldn't surprise me.
For the record anyway: i hate granola, do not wear Birkenstocks (i'm a Prada girl, sorry), ex-smoker (yuk, i know, but note the "ex" in ex), utter cynic and not at all idealistic like that chick Rainbow whatever who camped out in a tree for however long. I think it's great to prove a point, if in fact she did, but at the end of the day, there are other ways of achieving the same ends and having worked in nonprofit in some of these areas, i know one doesn't have to fit a stereotype to be effective for the cause.
Really - i wish all of us the best of luck finding good and safe rural housing in areas that are not all homogenous and i sincerely mean that. This is what we are currently looking for and find it harder and harder, when even a moderate house in a crappy area is running at about 325,000 - coyotes free.
thanks for reading, and sincerely best of luck and good wishes to you and yours and thanks for the laugh too - never been called "granola eating". The very idea if you could see me is quite funny.
Be well,
Sadi
3 - Dave Nalle
The good thing here in Texas is that I can shoot all the coyotes I want in my backyard and don't need to tell anyone or have a permit. This is a good thing since we've got two competing packs in our neighborhood.
I'm saving up for a night-vision scope for my rifle and once I've got it the days of the coyotes will be numbered.
Dave
4 - Shark
Dave's answer to overdevelopment is a better gun.
Whatta dick.
5 - Dave Nalle
No, that's my answer to coyotes, Shark. I know it's hard for you to be sensible, but please try.
Coyotes aren't a problem because of overdevelopment, they're a problem because they're coyotes and because their natural predators have been largely wiped out. They're not just causing problems in overdeveloped areas, because of population growth they're moving into urban areas as well. Same thing as the problem with deer.
Dave
6 - sadi
Dave, just to reiterate, i want to be clear on what you are saying - the coyote or deer problem has nothing to do with overdevelopment and has to do with the fact that their natural predators have been laregly wiped out.
You then, are the answer to the coyote/deer problem. Move to Massachusetts with your ammo and your guns. In some communities you'd be loved, no doubt.
thanks for setting us all straight.
7 - Dave Nalle
Said, I can only speak to what is going on here in Texas. There's still lots and lots of undeveloped land here, but Deer and Coyotes are attracted to settled areas because of the easy pickings and easy mobility which they provide. They ARE overpopulated and they may indeed be displaced from one area to another by development, but I see that as a secondary problem to the overpopulation.
I know your main point is protecting the wilderness from human development, but what is the solution to that? People have to have somewhere to live. Most of the development around here is family housing. What do you suggest be done with these people?
Coyote and deer are in no danger of extinction. Even Moose are getting overpopulated now. One solution to this problem of wild animals overruning neighborhoods is to reduce their numbers. Another is to outlaw feeding them - a huge problem with deer.
Dave
8 - sadi
hey Dave,
the only solutions i proposed are just simple precautions because i'm not an evironmentalist and until i am, i'm not qualified to propose a real solution. but what i CAN do is tell you and other readers what i would do if i lived in such an area, and that simple precautions should be taken.
My main point, and it's really simple in many ways, is that hard as this is to hear and devastated as i myself would be were it my pet, child, me, etc etc. is that if you live in rural areas that back a forest etc, then you either put up some kind of electric fencing or whatever or you can't be surprised. Letting fluffy out to pee at 1 am in an area known to have packs of coyotes is just irresponsible to me. I think the owners are, at least in part, responsible and i'm not trying to be harsh but where the hell did personal ownership go? I think we have to take precautions = it's that simple. I'm not about to say i have the solution. Hunt if you will, if it helps, makes you happy etc. - but are you really hunting to resolve a deer or moose or coyote problem or is that more a side benefit? (i'm not saying this to challenge you or be nasty, i bring it up because i want to keep it real.) IF you truly are doing it to help curtail the problem or both, then you must know the stats on this more than i do.
My only point was that this has been a major news story here in Massachusetts, much like the famed pit bull attacks (usually from owners who trained their dogs to attack, which is sad, because pit bulls are not by nature, as i understand, necessarily attack dogs, so they get a bad rap becaus of bad owners).
The point is - be safe, be careful. Yes, shit may happen anyway, but it is less likely if you take precautions and live your life accordingly. You can't move into what is practically the wilderness and then say "oh shit, there are lions, tigers and bears, oh my!" with any modicum of surprise ... that's just absurd.
that is my point. as for where should people live... as i wrote, develop sensibily. that means involving environmental specialists (read; not me,) who know a lot about what is indignous to a given area to determine the safety statistics etc etc. - that much makes sense to me. But to just build because "it's pretty" and "Lake Forest" or whatever sounds like a nice name is just stupid and irresponsible, at least in my mind.
Sure, you can disagree and that's fine. i'm always up for healthy debate. Last point: i'm assuming you eat the animals you hunt, which is sensible. I have a good friend in Montana who lives off of the meat of one or two deer all winter long and i have to tell you, i have great respect for that - more than i do for anyone who buys it prepackaged and is so removed from the orginal source. At least hunting our food forces us to see how we really get it... kind of like my long-ago visit to a slaughter house in Wisconsin, which on that very day, ended my life as meat eater - but again, i cook meat for my husband, family etc etc. I don't preach to others what to do, i'm simply saying be smart about it
but maybe that is preaching.
to me, that's just commonsense.
thanks.
s.r.p.
9 - Dave Nalle
Actually, I think I agree with you Sadi. That last response cleared a lot of my questions up for me.
My solution is to have a 'Fluffy' who weighs 80lbs and has lots of long, sharp teeth.
One disagreement, though. Under no circumstance am I going to eat coyote.
Dave
10 - sadi
i wouldn't eat a coyote either. as for Fluffy, wasn't mine - belonged to some family here. i feel badly for them, but really, as i wrote, it seemed kind of irresponsible to let any small dog outside at 1 am or after dark on unfenced property that directly backed into a real, wild forest known to have a coyote problem. i was truly astounded when the owner said the problem was that the coyotes "are not afraid of humans." I rather thought i should be afraid of wild animals myself, not the other way around unless armed with a gun, but hey...
anyway --- it's a sad situation and i do feel badly for the family and their loss. it's just that in this case and others, a little common sense could go a long way.
thanks for reading.
s.r.p.
11 - Shark
Dave "Mr. Locician" Nalle: "...they're a problem because they're coyotes and because their natural predators have been largely wiped out."
I wonder what "wiped out" their natural predators...
Probably had nothing to do with humans and their destruction of the environment.
Dave "Professor Biologist" Nalle: "...Deer and Coyotes... ARE overpopulated and they may indeed be displaced from one area to another by development, but I see that as a secondary problem to the overpopulation."
This genius is putting together quite a theory here.
zzzzzzzzzzzz....
12 - HW Saxton
Speaking of Coyotes:One of the most and
completely bizarre things I've ever seen
was the following: While driving thru SE
Okla. last summer near Durant,OK. to be
exact,I saw at least one hundred corpses
of coyotes in various states of decay
hanging off a barbed wire fence running
for several miles along a cattle farm.
I was told by my uncle that the rancher
had been having problems with coyotes
attacking calves and was killing them
left and right and leaving them as some
sort of warning to other coyotes I guess
to stay away.Whether it worked or not I
don't know, but it was a sight I'm sure
I'll never forget.As for me I like to
hear coyotes howl when I'm out camping
in the high desert of Nevada. If I had
to worry about them eating my dog then
I'd get a dog that I would not have to
worry about coyotes eating.Not some fufu
kind of pooch.
13 - Dave Nalle
Shark, was that festival of misspelling and confusion supposed to elicit pity or laughter?
Dave
14 - Dave Nalle
Saxton: ".As for me I like to
hear coyotes howl when I'm out camping
in the high desert of Nevada."
Would you like to hear two packs competing to see who can howl loudest and longest every night behind your house? And of course, then the dogs pick it up too... I can send a tape i you like.
Dave
15 - Lori
I wish the coyotes would simply eat more people. :)
It never ceases to amaze me that those who have the authority to permit more development, never, ever consider the impact it will have on traffic, school overcrowding and wildlife. When will the QUALITY of life ever take precedence over "bringing more money into the county"?. I have helped to fight many battles against overdevelopment and we've won a few, but only a few. Money talks and the slimy developers always have a way around zoning regulations and seem to always have someone looking out for their interests.
Here in Maryland the overdevelopment is extreme. My mother's property, which borders state park land was always full of wildlife: a squirrel here and a deer there and now she literally has herds.
One evening we counted a herd of 25 in her back yard.
Why? Because aside from the state park there is almost literally no undeveloped land left in our area. Hunting only does so much. This used to be a rural area but now it is overrun with McMansions - a sea of overgrown, over priced, crammed together, poorly built, particle board homes starting in the low 600's and everybody's gotta have one.
They just love living in the "country".
Unfortunately, they don't realize it's not the country anymore and it's their development that ruined it. People are like stupid sheep... baaa follow the herd... and it scares me.
In far western MD, it's a bear problem.
I say it's a people problem.
The very people that move out there for the natural beauty are the same weak people that complain that the bears get into their trash cans. Seems to me that they're in bear territory now, maybe it's time WE adapt.
Coincidentally, on the news this past week, a coyote was spotted in my suburban hometown. My town is bordered by a state park. I didn't know that coyotes had gotten much further east than the Shenandoah mountains. I thought this was the best news ... coyotes love sheep.
P.S. I'd give anything to hear a pack of coyotes howling at night.
16 - Victor Plenty
Most coyotes are too smart to eat people. They have learned to instinctively know, no matter how tempting and delicious a snack one lone human might seem to be, there are always millions more where that one came from, and they all get mighty pissed off whenever any other species has the sheer gall to treat them like food.
17 - Nicolette Rivers
I'm a couple weeks away from moving to heavy duty wolf country. I would be devastated if something happened to my pets, but they are *my* pets and my responsibility. If one of my dogs got hit by a car because I did not secure her by a busy road, that would be my fault. If I live near forests and predatory animals it is up to me to create a secure environment or supervise.
I'm pretty close to a tree-hugger I supposed, but I'm not claiming that animals have more (or as many) rights as people. What I am saying is that we should try to live alongside nature in peace as much as we can.
If it came to a choice between protecting my pets or killing a wild animal, I'll protect my pets...but it's up to me to make sure I don't hae to make that choice.
18 - sadi
that's essentially what i'm saying as well - so i couldn't agree more. At present, i'm outraged by this guy here in this state who literally stomped a whole family of baby geese to death and then kicked the shit out of the mother goose and broke her bones etc etc and she eventually had to be euthanized. It was one of the most inhumane, disturbing things i have ever seen in my life and i'm wondering where the hell the punishment is for this kind of thing. This guy is obviously totally screwed up - to do this with his feet - because, he said, he felt "threatened." I can tell you, geese can be fierce and protective of their young. So you walk away. It's that simple. So right now, this is where my head is at. I'm so outraged by this and pissed off. The company who employs this guy should fire him. God knows i would.
Thanks for writing - and be well,
Sadi
19 - sadi
Tendrils - excellent comments by the way - Yes, development is a huge issue, and building through breeding and animal migratory routes will inevitably lead to this kind of thing. It is truly amazing that nobody is ever hired (to my knowledge) to check this out BEFORE roads, housing developments, etc. are built. Don't cry wolf after the fact. Do your research first and then build would be my theory - but hey, that just makes way too much sense and might not be so cost effective and we all know that money is at the heart of the issue. Ain't it great?
Thanks for the comments - appreciate it.
sadi