Dealing with coyotes
To the editor:
First let me say that I am an avid animal lover. I do not want to see any animal suffer, mistreated or killed. Pine Island is a unique place where we strive to protect our land, our environment and our wildlife. As we have been fighting lately to protect our land from massive development, it is now time to protect our wildlife. We now have a predator among us which threatens our wildlife, our pets and possibly our children – coyotes. Coyotes will eat our raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, opossums, armadillos and any other wildlife. There have already been reports of missing and partially eaten pets on the island. Do we have to wait until a child is attacked to get something done?
Animal Control says they don’t deal with coyotes and Fish and Wildlife says they don’t deal with them, but you can shoot them. Are you supposed to carry a gun every time you take your pet or child for a walk? It is unknown how many coyotes are on the island, but let’s say there are eight in St. James City and four of them are female. Coyotes have between 3 and 12 pups, so let’s take an average of 7 per female, now you have a total of 36 in 1 year (the original 8 plus 28 pups.) The following year, using the same percentages, now 18 females at 7 pups each, you now have 162 (the 36 plus 126 pups) coyotes in St. James City and this continues year after year.
How brazen are they going to be when the food supply (the wildlife) dis-appears? This is a problem that needs to be controlled now before it becomes unachievable task. Who can help???
Becky Read
St. James City