Vicious Coyotes - Vicious People

Not sure why this subject has people calling each other names and being out of character. What is so important about being right that you have to run someone else down for a different opinion? **** Here are the facts about coyotes and I don't particularly care who agrees or disagrees - fact is fact even if you try to say it isn't, and it's your dogs and cats, not mine. Coyotes are pack animals. They will not IN GENERAL attack larger dogs, but will use a female to draw it out of it's territory and then gang up on it. Cats are one of their more favorite meals. Small dogs are as well. They are of the dog family and can jump fences or walls just as dogs do. They are attracted by dog or cat food left out. IN GENERAL they will avoid humans and their habitats as long as their natural prey is available. This situation is different - the 3 or 4 fires we have had have chased them into territory unfamiliar with them and burned all their normal prey. A starving coyote acts very different than a normal one and their normal fear of humans and human places disappears. Anything available which can be eaten becomes their food - just as it would for you if you were starving. Cats and dogs in penned in back yards are easy prey. Displaced coyotes are cannibalistic as well - kill or wound one and the others will eat it. A poodle was snatched off a leash in Sharondale Park in broad daylight while I was living there - it does happen. Remember that these are displaced wild dogs who kill for their food - common sense says don't leave animals they perceive as food unattended. This problem will dwindle as natural prey returns and the coyotes return to their normal habitat, but until it does people need to be smarter than the dog (coyote). Be especially careful with cats - coyotes find them a delicacy and have a dislike for them as most dogs do. **** And stop downing each other and calling names - just because you have had one experience doesn't mean another person hasn't had a different one. **** Jeremiah