Dear Editor,

These past couple of years, certain coyotes in Los Alamos and White Rock have become very aggressive. One coyote runs up the sidewalk on my street every night around sunset.  I have followed it with a car and taken many pictures of it.  This coyote is unafraid of humans, and that is a bad thing, and not normal.

The aggressive coyotes need to be culled, and the meeker coyotes which don’t attack dogs or baby humans will prevail.  We won’t see them as much, or suffer as much from their depravations, which is normal.  I have only lived in Los Alamos for 28 years, and I would like some others to chime in:  I recall prior to the May 2000 Cerro Grande Fire (1996? 1997 or so?). A young mother was hanging her laundry on the clothesline somewhere around 46th/47th/48th street, at that time the Urban/Wildlife boundary.  When she went in for another load, two coyotes jumped the 3 foot tall chain link fence.  She returned to hear the screaming of her baby as the larger (male) coyote was trying to pull the baby BY ITS HEAD over the fence.  She yelled at them, and they ran off.  The baby had tooth puncture marks on its head (skull).  I do not recall if the baby had to undergo rabies shots.  At that point, the NM Game & Fish Dept. came to town with a lot of traps and culled the coyote population. 

I hope other readers can fill in any holes in this story, I assure you it happened.  I have lived in New Mexico for 44 years now.  Twelve years in the Grants, NM area and four years on the outskirts of Carlsbad, NM.  Normal coyotes do not willingly interact with humans. They are very shy, and will run away if they are seen.  This is the natural interaction.  They are not some cute pet, they are wild animals, natural predators, and always opportunistic.  The coyotes in Los Alamos County have once again had our help to breed themselves to be aggressive, and unafraid of humans.  We don’t need another attack on a human (baby, child), which may have a much worse outcome than the last attack.  I think it is time to call the NM Game & Fish Dept.

Sincerely,
Mike Dempsey
White Rock