Greenwood Village: Where Coyotes Go to Get Shot
Cowardly family pets, left unattended, are easy prey for vicious coyotes. "The combination of a backyard with a birdfeeder and a dog is a death sentence," adds Jay Stewart, of the coyote-shootin' company Animal Damage Control and Wildlife Management Services, in this month's Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle . Such fearmongering is fueling increased coyote slayings and criticism from animal rights advocates. In Greenwood Village, south of Denver, police and Stewart have killed six coyotes so far this year, reports The Denver Post, which writes that authorities received "multiple" reports of coyotes chasing residents in the Monaco Park area, building on a report of an attack on a child earlier this year. Animal activists, however, say that hysteria is trumping better, common-sense approaches, such as simply trying to scare the coyotes away. WildEarth Guardians' cause is represented in its growing efforts to save "Limpy," the lame coyote on Greenwood Village's coyote hit list (via www.LetLimpyLive.org).
Comments
Submitted by BJ (not verified) on Thu, 2009-05-21 12:49.
There is no "coyote problem" anymore in Greenwood Village as there is in any other nearby town.
The news releases coming from City Hall are full of exaggerations and deceptions to sway public view.
Certain vocal and influential residents, who often happen to have small dogs (a.k.a. 'LIVE BAIT') simply are afraid of coyotes and consider them a "menace" instead of a wildlife treasure.
The city is perpetuating the fear.
The four coyotes in the Tommy Davis Park that were recently shot, were never hazed or paintballed as a first option.
This is contrary to the city's latest claim in its news release that they "first try paintballing." The GW Village police used paintballs in the Marjorie Perry Preserve for a total of only 2 weeks so far this year, which started May 1 and ended May 15.
The city claims it has a "comprehensive plan" but it appears that the two week hazing effort was just a token effort to say they did it.
WildEarth Guardians has had an almost all-woman volunteer force hazing in several Greenwood Village parks including Marjorie Perry in the Preserve since February, but is not officially recognized by the city and has never hazed in Tommy Davis Park. If these coyotes are so "dangerous," why is it mostly women (some very petite ones) doing the hazing, and not one of them is frightened of coyotes or has encountered any unusual or "aggressive" coyote behavior.
It's time we started hearing the truth from Greenwood Village City Hall.
Submitted by Tanya Strickland (not verified) on Thu, 2009-05-21 07:29.
Thank you, Michael, for some common sense writing. Just reading the Cherry Creek Chronicle article you mentioned, I was floored by the inflammatory language used in the first few paragraphs alone. People are conditioned by media to form opinions when they have no personal experience on a subject. Using words like "invade" and "tsunami" instantly invoke fear in the reader.
The fact is, coyotes aren't "invading" Greenwood Village. People are building in areas that have traditionally been left to wildlife. The response to that statement is usually "I've lived here for X years and never saw a coyote until now." Well, that's because someone has built a subdivision where that coyote use to live and it has to find a new place to hang out.
If everyone would just stop for a minute, take a breath, and realize that with a little effort we can coexist with wildlife if we just follow a few simple "rules," we'd all be better off.
