From the Glennwood Estates message board via Dave’s Decatur Heights Neighborhood blog…

One of our neighbors on the south end of Mt. Vernon stopped me to say that he has a coyote in his back yard. At about 6:30 this morning, the coyote killed another neighbor’s dog that, I gather, might have been running loose. The coyote is most apt to be active at dawn and dusk and is protected by law.

So that’s what?  A second-hand account being provided to you in a fourth-hand account?  Would be great if we could get some confirmation on this reported dog-killing.

Of course, coyotes aren’t unheard of ’round these parts.  Who can forget my overly snarky coverage of the coyote caught in Oakhurst back in November 2007?  Not me, that’s for sure!

Photo Courtesy of 11Alive

inDecatur points to a discussion over at the Decatur Forum about an 11alive article I reported on yesterday regarding the fate of the coyote caught in Oakhurst. The article states that the coyote was to be euthanized yesterday, so the discussion may only be hypothetical at this point.

Why the coyote was euthanized and not released in a more suitable environment is probably a money issue. Much cheaper to just kill the animal than spend the time and money to truck it way outside the perimeter and release it. Other than that, the only other motivation to kill is the fear that the animal could come back and frighten residents and eat weaker animals.

I can certainly comprehend the efficiency argument, even though I may not agree with it. As far as the coyote returning to Oakhurst, I don’t know how far away the animal would have to be taken not to return, so I can’t really judge the validity of that fear.

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.