COYOTE TRAPS SET IN VALLEY.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Succumbing to pressure from residents who signed petitions and mailed fliers, animal control officials said Friday that they have taken the extraordinary step of setting traps for coyotes in Northridge and Woodland Hills.

The trapping this summer is the first since the City Council voted in 1993 to sharply curtail the conditions under which the animals could be seized.

``The Valley is our most troubled spot,'' said Dan Knapp, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services.

The city placed traps in the 17300 block of Superior Street in Northridge and in the 5700 block of Valerie Avenue in Woodland Hills earlier this week, following similar traps that were set in June.

When a coyote is captured, city policy requires that it be put to sleep.

Animal activists are upset with the city's decision to make exceptions to its ban, claiming that trapping will not solve the coyote problem.

``Every time a bear or a coyote shows up in someone's neighborhood, people want cowboys to go out there and shoot them,'' said Madeline Bernstein, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Los Angeles.

Rather, people should keep pets and pet food indoors, secure trash cans and make their homes uninviting by picking fruit on trees before it drops to the ground, she said.

But residents said the trapping is justified because coyotes are eating their pets and threatening their children.

``My biggest fear is that there are young children around here who could be injured by coyotes,'' said Woodland Hills resident Lucy Fourtney, whose neighborhood in the 20400 block of Coulson Street has reported coyotes killing cats and walking brazenly down their street with pups in tow.

Faced with enormous community pressure, Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson asked for the traps to be installed after the office got petitions and numerous phone calls from residents frustrated by the bold predators.

``In this case, we encouraged animal regulation to take a look to see if it warranted trapping,'' said Bernson spokesman Ali Sar. ``The suspicion was that the animal might be sick or ill, so we encouraged animal regulation to handle this special case.''

Knapp said there are four cases in which coyotes can be trapped. Those are if the animal is sick or injured, if the county issues a mandate, if the health services department suspects the coyote has rabies and if the animal poses a public safety threat.

In the Northridge and Woodland Hills cases, animal officials said they approved the trap because the coyotes' behavior raised concerns that they were sick or injured and posed a safety hazard. Specifically, the coyote was going after household cats, raising the question that it could be ill because it wasn't going after larger game, he said.

To catch a coyote

In Northridge and Woodland Hills, the city provided residents with traps. The resident is responsible for monitoring it and calls the city when a coyote is caught. The city picks it up and euthanizes it.

Every night for nearly a week, Northridge resident Don Gorden has gone outside with a coffee can full of dog food and dripped the smelly gook in a beeline for a coyote trap on his front lawn.

``The first night I caught an opossum,'' Gorden said. ``The second night I got a raccoon. I had a cat in there last night.''

But Gorden, who lives in the 17300 block of Superior Street several miles inside the urbanized Valley, isn't discouraged. He's going to try rotten chicken meat to attract the shy, wily animals.

Gorden is among those residents who favor trapping the coyotes but don't want them killed. He favors releasing them in another location.

But it's against the law to relocate wild animals, because the coyotes carry various diseases and would just transfer the problem to another area.

``They are very capable of carrying rabies,'' Felosky said. ``Do you want one dropped off by your house? They are not endangered by any imagination. There are a lot of reasons not to relocate them.''

Felosky said trapping is the only way to address the crush of coyote reports. They include:

A Woodland Hills man who noticed a coyote in his back yard Thursday night and approached it to scare it away. But the coyote came at the man in an ``aggressive manner'' and he retreated to his house.

``This is not only great cause for concern, but proof in the pudding that coyotes are becoming accustomed to people to the point where they are no longer afraid,'' said West Valley Animal Care and Control Center Lt. Richard Felosky.

``What if he was a child? Have people been bitten in situations like that? Sure,'' Felosky said.

Prior to the 1993 policy on coyotes, trappers caught 50 to 150 a year in the city, Felosky said. Since the La Nina-fueled drought in Los Angeles has driven coyotes out of the hills and into people's back yards, wildlife authorities believe coyotes are more plentiful in the San Fernando Valley than ever before. The California Fish and Game Department estimates the coyote population in the state between 250,000 and 750,000.

Recent reports include:

A den of seven to 10 coyotes in the 4000 block of Rogen Drive in Encino.

Between 15 to 20 complaints about coyotes eating cats in the 10200 block of Donna Avenue in Northridge.

Coyotes eating apricots, grapes and tomatoes in people's back yards in the 7400 block of Jason Avenue in Canoga Park.

Sighting of 10 coyotes in the 4900 block of Vanalden Avenue in Tarzana.

A coyote attacked a dog in the 23200 block of Valerio Street in West Hills.

A limping coyote reported in the 20400 block of Coulson Street in Woodland Hills.

A coyote killed a cat and then sat on a front porch in the 5600 block of Collins Place in Woodland Hills.

``The coyote complaints are constant,'' Felosky said. ``They've been breeding since 1993.''

Petitioning for change

In Northridge, residents took action to get the city to do something about their problematic coyote.

In March, Gorden and Northridge resident Marilyn Barton got 20 neighbors to sign a petition asking for a trap. They sent it to Bernson's office. In June, they gathered 36 signatures and the city responded by putting in a trap. It never caught the coyote.

Last weekend, with the help of a couple of Realtors, they sent out 200 fliers to neighbors asking them to watch out for the coyote, saying: ``As you are probably aware, we have had a problem with a coyote roaming our neighborhood and killing small animals for food. . . . Please do not leave small children, small dogs or pet cats unattended.''

Also over the weekend, real estate agent Randy DiSimone used an automatic computer dialer to leave about 1,000 messages on people's answering machines warning them about the coyote.

In response, a Northridge resident called DiSimone earlier this week to say the coyote was in his back yard Monday for about 20 minutes, but when he called the authorities, they told him the animal care center was closed Monday and they didn't have anyone to respond.

In Woodland Hills, resident Joyce Hart said the city brought her a trap Sunday. She and other neighbors held a meeting last month called, ``Do the coyotes pay your taxes?''

``The squeaky wheel gets the oil,'' she said.

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Photo

Photo: Don Gorden sets a coyote trap in the front yard of his Northridge home, as Randy DiSimone, left, and Marilyn Barton converse.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer