Neighbors in Hancock Park are growing concerned after spotting coyotes on an almost daily basis in recent weeks, with some long-time residents saying they’ve never seen this many before.
“You’ll be out cutting your grass, picking up leaves and there goes a coyote just walking right by,” Chris Vlahos said. “They’re eyeballing you is the best way I can put it. They’re really sizing you up.”
The complaints come one day after a coyote attacked a dog owned by Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee and his wife Brittany Furlan in Woodland Hills.
“They watch we've we've walked down the block and have come up to the front door and I've looked across the street looking at us from across the street,” said Hancock Park resident Quane.
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Hancock Park is a neighborhood with many young families and house pets. Vlahos wants city and state agencies to start trapping before someone gets hurt.
“Why does something have to suffer, why does something have to happen before something can be done?” Vlahos said. “They’re really adapting, they’re evolving, they’re getting comfortable, they’re not scared of cars, they’re not scared of people and that’s concerning when you consider it’s a predator, it’s a wild animal and it’s searching for food because it’s hungry.”
LA’s Animal Services said the Department of Fish and Wildlife is the lead agency for removing coyotes that pose a danger to the community.
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“We don't hunt down animals that are just behaving in a way that doesn't surprise us in the first place,” said Tim Daly with the Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Wildlife has to be determined to be a serious safety threat to someone. If wildlife comes literally in contact with someone and causes injuries, that is when fish and wildlife will try and find that animal. If wildlife is behaving as wildlife does, taking the occasional pet, we don't come in and go looking for that animal.”
Daly that the sightings are not exactly unusual and coyotes can adapt where food is available.
“We actually shouldn't be surprised that coyotes are showing up in what we consider to be non-traditional locations like the middle of a city,” Daly said. “Coyotes are very adaptable to our living conditions. They will go where the food and the water and in many cases shelter is available to them.”
Daly added that people need to determine what is bringing the coyote to the neighborhood in the first place.
“We might forget that we left the pet food out at night,” said Daly. “We might not have remembered to clean our barbecue at the end of a long meal. And there's those odors and bits of food still on a barbecue.”
The Department of Fish and Wildlife encourages people to report what they are seeing and dealing with as they look at the reports daily, and if they determine there is a public safety threat, they will respond accordingly.
But that’s little help for Vlahos, whose outdoor cat has spent a lot of time indoors lately.
“He’s terrified, absolutely terrified,” Vlahos said.
LA’s Animal Services said today that they host monthly virtual information sessions on how to safely co-exist with wildlife.
You can find more information on the LA Animal Services website.
