On February 7th, the Arcadia City Council voted unanimously to start trapping and killing the city’s coyotes in response to complaints from residents about the animals’ presence. This decision replaces the city’s non-lethal management approach toward coyotes, which, since 2011, has emphasized education and coexistence.
The city has approved the expenditure of $20,000 of Arcadia’s tax dollars to hire a trapper–funds that would be better spent on proactively educating residents on simple approaches to peacefully coexist with urban wildlife.
In addition to being unnecessarily inhumane, trapping has been shown to upset coyotes’ social structure, which may result in an increase in the coyote population and in turn, the frequency of neighborhood encounters. Please join Project Coyote in urging the city to maintain a coyote management plan that is more effective in the long term, as well as more ethical and ecologically sound.
What You Can Do To Help
1. Contact the Arcadia City Council and ask them to end indiscriminate trapping, and promote a Coyote Management Plan that fosters coexistence by emphasizing proactive public education and aversive conditioning for habituated coyotes.
Mayor Tom Beck: tbeck@ArcadiaCA.gov
Mayor Pro Tem Peter Amundson: peter@keeparcadiagreat.com
City Council members:
Roger Chandler: CityCouncil@ArcadiaCA.gov
Sho Tay: ShoTayforArcadia@gmail.com
April Verlato: averlato@ArcadiaCA.gov
Arcadia City Council
City Hall City Council Chamber
240 West Huntington Drive
Arcadia, CA 91007
Phone: (626) 574-5403
2. If you are a local resident, join Randi Feilich, Project Coyote’s Southern California Representative, at the Arcadia City Council meeting on February 21st to express your concerns in a public forum:
What: Arcadia City Council Meeting
When: February 21, 2017, 7pm
Where: Council Chambers
240 W. Huntington Drive
Arcadia, CA 91007
3. Help keep these issues in the public eye by submitting Letters to the Editor of your local paper(s). Use our tips and tools for writing LTE’s. Read our news release about this issue here.
Local newspapers:
ARCADIA WEEKLY
http://www.arcadiaweekly.com/contact/
PASADENA STAR NEWS
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinion/20131010/send-a-letter-to-the-star-news
LOS ANGELES TIMES
http://www.latimes.com/about/la-letter-to-the-editor-htmlstory.html
TALKING POINTS (please be respectful and personalize your message):
- Indiscriminate trapping of coyotes is not an effective or humane solution to reduce real or perceived conflicts between people, coyotes, and domestic animals. Coyotes are here to stay. We must learn to coexist. Education is the key.
- There are many effective non-lethal methods for reducing negative encounters between people, coyotes, and domestic animals. More info. here.
- Snares, which are most often used to capture coyotes, are indiscriminate and may capture, injure or kill pets and other wildlife, including threatened and endangered species.
- Killing coyotes is ultimately ineffective as coyotes from surrounding areas will soon refill vacant niches. Read more here.
- Coyotes play an important role in keeping rodent populations in check and ecosystems clean of carrion. Coyotes also help to limit mesocarnivores (e.g. foxes, skunks, raccoons) thereby helping boost bird population and diversity.
- We’re here to help. Encourage the City of Arcadia to work with Project Coyote in adopting and implementing an ecologically and ethically sound long-term coyote coexistence plan that emphasizes public education, reducing coyote/wildlife attractants, and hazing of habituated coyotes.
Remember to include your name, address, and email address when submitting public comments to ensure that your comments will be counted in the official record!
Read Project Coyote’s letter to the Arcadia City Council here.
Thank you for writing on behalf of America’s Native Song Dog!