Greenwood Village recently approved an ordinance that permits lethal, limited shooting of coyotes. The city has hired a contractor, Animal Damage Control Wildlife Management Services, to kill the animals and is seeking approval from the Tri-County Health Department to allow the setting of leg traps for coyotes.
The city justifies its actions through the growing number of coyotes present in residential areas and the potential threat it poses to pets and people.
The issue arose specifically in response to a reported attack on a 14-year-old boy, who was in Westlands Park during the attack and managed to fend off the coyote unscathed.
Suburban residents need to understand that this is not an appropriate way to handle the situation.
I know that, as parents, it is easy to be swept up in the emotion and fear that arises from an attack on a child and perhaps act rashly as a result, but I beg you to take a step back and think about the situation rationally.
It’s important to understand, in the first place, who is encroaching on whose territory. In all honesty, the coyotes were here first, and we are the intruders, we are the ones who have fractionalized their numbers and pushed them into the few open spaces and parks remaining.
I understand that Denver is one of the fastest growing cities in the West, and new development is an inevitable part of this process, but we have to learn to live symbiotically with local wildlife, not in frequent war with it.
Yes, coyotes are in some ways pests, but destroying them is not the answer. Wolves were considered pests to farmers, and were hunted nearly to extinction for it.
And just as wolves are considered almost part of the culture of the Rocky Mountains, so too are coyotes part of what makes the Great Plains unique and beautiful.
Killing a few can, unchecked, easily translate to killing an irreparable proportion of the population and losing part of our natural heritage.
Additionally, as a biology student and a volunteer at the zoo, I have learned that every aspect of an ecosystem is integrally related.
Destroying a significant portion of the coyote population, which is one of the few remaining natural predators of small animals common to the suburbs, will likely cause the already ridiculously high rabbit population to skyrocket even further, meaning more ruined gardens and eaten up lawns.
But what about the danger to pets and children? As for cats and dogs, residents of the suburbs have already been dealing with this risk their entire lives: don’t leave your small pets outside without your supervision, don’t leave pet food outside – we all know what we’re supposed to do.
The problem, of course, comes when there are supposed attacks on your children. For many, the story of the 14-year-old boy was the wake-up call that motivated action against the coyotes. While I can’t, of course, confirm or deny with certainty that incident, I must ask you to be very skeptical.
I am a resident of Greenwood Village myself, and I live less than a five minute walk from Westlands Park, where the incident occurred.
From my understanding, the 14-year-old, just over 5-foot teenager was walking through the park near dusk when he was attacked out of the blue.
Coyotes are not very large animals, weighing only about 25-30 pounds, and are generally relatively shy animals, especially when not in a pack.
If the boy’s story was true, what reason could the coyote have to attack, unthreatened, a being 3 or 4 times its size?
Either something was wrong with the coyote – perhaps he had rabies – or something is wrong with the boy’s story – he may have been throwing rocks or threatening the coyote in some way.
Further, it’s very suspicious that a boy who survived a vicious coyote attack came out of it without even a scratch. In any case, you should be very hesitant about taking the story at face value.
Whenever possible, we should try to live alongside local flora and fauna. However, when local populations begin to pose a real and verifiable threat to our family members and way of life, sometimes it is necessary to take action.
The most important thing, though, is to not let our emotions take control of us, and killing off a large proportion of the coyote population is not a reasonable way to handle the situation.
Instead, we should look for less destructive alternatives, such as relocating part of the existing population or further educating residents about how to live with coyotes.
There is no perfect solution to the problem, but the best way to handle it is through intelligent, thoughtful, measured decisions.
Peter Ingram is a Cherry Creek high school junior and lives in Greenwood Village. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
