OK, obviously I don’t know or understand Oakhurst at all. It’s like the freakin’ wild west down there! It’s dog eat dog and coyote eat cat on the southern side of the tracks.
Apparently there are reports of coyotes eating cats in Oakhurst. Apparently these reports are credible enough for the AJC to write an article about it. Apparently there is such a concern that the Oakhurst Homeowners Association has invited Michael Ellis from the Atlanta Wild Animal Rescue Effort to speak to residents tonight at the Solarium at 7pm about the facts and myths of urban coyotes.
While I was aware of reports (and hilarious videos) of wild animals coming into cities as development continues to destroy their natural habitat (I’ve seen/heard a surprising number of owls ITP lately), I didn’t realize that coyotes were currently a problem in Oakhurst. Oakhurst isn’t exactly a fringe community, so I figure that if Oakhurst has this “problem”, much of metro Atlanta does too.
So why is Oakhurst getting all the press? Well, it seems a female coyote was caught in the neighborhood recently and 11 Alive reports that the animal will be euthanized on Thursday. Euthanized?! That’s our brilliant solution? We can’t release the animal somewhere outside the city? I guess that costs to many tax payer dollars. DeKalb County sure loves to euthanize animals! As the 11 alive article points out that “for every documented coyote attack on a human there are 400,000 dog attacks.”
Though there’s an understandable concern for pets safety with coyotes lurking about, their presence can also be beneficial. This story from World Science points out that they help control a neighborhood’s rat population.