Coyote Fact Sheet
“…Prevention is the best defese against nuisance coyotes. Small house pets (especially cats), young or small livestock and poultry are vulnerable and susceptible to predation by a coyote. If a coyote is suspected in an area where domestic animals are roaming free, several precautions can be made to ensure their safety:
• Take pets indoors during the night, as this is the coyote’s primary hunting time.
• If the pet must be kept outside, put up fencing to discourage coyotes.
• Small livestock or poultry should be kept in an enclosed or sheltered area. Coyotes rarely bother larger livestock although they often are blamed for such nuisance instances. It should be noted that dogs, rather than coyotes, are notorious for harassing and attacking livestock.

Trapping and/or hunting are additional solutions against nuisance coyotes. Because coyotes are a non-native species in Georgia, there is no closed season for their harvest. Foot hold or live traps can be used to capture animals. However, coyotes may prove difficult to deceive with traps and hunting may be a better solution. When hunting, predator or animal-in-distress calls are effective methods of luring in a coyote.

Coyotes are valued for their thick, attractive fur and are harvested seasonally for commercial use of their pelts.
DISEASE
A coyote displaying abnormal behavior and appearing fearless of humans is uncharacteristic and may mean the animal is injured or has fallen victim to a disease, such as rabies, parvovirus or distemper. In this case, it is in the coyote’s and human’s best interest to euthanize the animal to prevent any further spread of the disease and relieve the suffering of the infected animal.
BENEFITS
Overall, the coyote is a largely misunderstood creature and despite its nuisance reputation, serves to maintain a balance in Georgia’s rodent population while posing little threat to humans.