Pet owners leave meeting on SF coyote problem frustrated

From urban legend to urban conflict; in less than a decade coyotes have gotten a big foothold in San Francisco and many residents are alarmed.

"Are the coyotes in protected by state law?" asked one resident who attended a community meeting at Lake Merced, one of many parks where coyote sightings and conflicts have risen dramatically.

The meeting was intended to ease concerns after two dogs were attacked recently in Stern Grove. One survived. The other, a seven-pound maltipoo, was carried off and killed by a coyote in front of its horrified owners.

"The Diamond Heights playground, you can't go there during the day. There's coyotes all the time," complained another attendee at the meeting.

Coyotes started to appear in the city in 2007, an exotic sight in the beginning, but for many people, the novelty has faded, replaced by fear.

"We need safe places for our dogs to be off-leash," declared a man to applause. "And are we just waiting and hoping? Or are we going to have to continue to feel unsafe with our dogs at Stern Grove?"

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says it would only trap or kill a coyote if it hurt someone and that pet safety depends on people being aware and cautious.

"It's not a coyote problem. It's a people problem," spokesman Andrew Hughan told the crowd. "And dogs and cats are going to be taken. We have calls all the time of dogs taken right off their leash. It's going to happen, so you have to be the best dog owner you can be."

The two hour meeting was punctuated with moans and groans from the audience, many people unhappy that new approaches were not being considered.

"If you're saying there's no solution because they're eating our cats, and our animals, then we need to do something else and consider eradication," insisted one dog owner.

Coyotes do not have state protection, but hunting is not allowed in city parks, and city policy specifies co-existence with wildlife.

Sterilizing or relocating coyotes was also rejected by the panel as counter-productive.

"We have to basically teach those resident coyotes what we want," explained Camilla Fox, of the preservationist group ProjectCoyote.org.

Fox said people have to teach coyotes by taking away their food and access, plus shooing them away, so they are afraid of people.

"We say, 'Hey, we'll live with you. But we're going to show you where our boundaries are, and what we're not going to accept as a community,'" elaborated Fox.

It was clear though, by the end of the meeting, many pet owners left frustrated and disappointed.

"We need to talk to our supervisors, and the mayor, because they're the ones who do the policy," exclaimed the final speaker. "And we need to bring other voices into this because we need solutions!"

Ultimately, the gathering resulted in no policy decisions, but much advice was shared.

Namely, don't feed coyotes, don't leave pet food where they can get it, and pick up fruit under trees, because coyotes like fruit.

Park habitat offers coyotes the food, water, and shelter they need, and as they breed, juveniles set out to establish their own territory, which is why they are being seen in more places.

DNA testing on some of the original coyotes in the city showed they came from Marin County; over the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Presidio, where the colonization began.