Urban Coyotes in the news again - it's that time of year again
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2...lem-dealt-with
A Niagara Falls resident says she’s “petrified” that coyotes have set up shop in an unoccupied property next door.
Mary Gordon, who lives on St. James Avenue, said during the past year she has noticed an influx of coyotes in her end of the city, especially in a hydro field that backs on to her property.
But since June, she said coyotes have taken a particular liking to a property next door, which has not been inhabited for about three years since her neighbour died.
“You can start to see tracks and you can start to see them coming closer and hunkering down in (her neighbour’s) backyard,” said Gordon.
“There’s a den in his backyard. It’s wooded and wild, it’s like a wild kingdom. It’s an unkept situation in the middle of the city and it’s a conversation piece amongst the neighbours at best.”
She said the condition of the property was “tolerable” when her neighbour was alive “because he was such a lovely person,” although he “couldn’t keep up with his property.”
“It was certainly more kept than it is these days.”
Gordon said since her neighbour’s death, a family member “comes around maybe once a quarter,” collects the mail and “maybe very seldomly does anything to care for the property.”
She said near the end of the summer she noticed a rat problem emanating from the next-door property.
“I literally can stand in my backyard and watch the rats come from his property and scurry across my property, so it’s definitely a feeding frenzy for the coyotes and now that the winter is here, they’re taking the easy way out.”
Gordon said she sees coyotes on a daily basis, at all times of the day, on the next-door property.
“It’s terrifying,” she said, adding she has a cocker spaniel and is worried for the dog’s safety.
“Everyone assures me he’s a little bit too big for the coyotes liking, but I’m not comforted by that when I hear and read stories on the internet about attacks and confrontations.”
Gordon said the coyotes usually stay away from her property, but can be seen through the fence.
“My dog goes out and if I allowed my dog to be off leash during these times, which typically he used to — he has a huge, massive, beautiful yard to use and he can’t be off leash in it — they’d be nose to nose at the fence.”
She said a coyote jumped from her neighbour’s yard to her yard and “spent the day” in her backyard behind her garage Tuesday.
“I was out of town. My senior mother lives with me and I’m petrified for my dog (who) couldn’t relieve himself all damn day until I got back from Toronto because this coyote sitting here and I’m not here to deal with it. Not that I’m a professional, but I’ve learned a lot and every single time I have to … put my brave suit on and get the hell out there and deal with it.”
Gordon said she has filed reports with Coyote Watch Canada and the City of Niagara Falls, and has reached out to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
“I’ve done all the things everyone tells you to do to no avail.”
She said a Coyote Watch Canada representative came out to walk her property, but without authorization, couldn’t go right on to her neighbour’s property.
“She was lovely and extremely informative and a wealth of knowledge and such, but … her coaching for me was how to be one with the coyote and I’m not interested in being one with the coyote,” said Gordon.
“I don’t really want to hurt the coyote, either. I’m an animal lover.”
She said she contacted the mayor’s office and has spoken to a bylaw officer with the city, yet the situation persists.
“I’ve told the city this umpteen million times, but they won’t look at my problem holistically. They’re like, ‘rats, OK, deal with rats, we put traps in the sewers.’ They’re like, ‘coyotes, OK, everybody’s got coyotes so we’re not doing anything about that.’ They’re like, ‘OK, his grass is too tall, we’ll make him cut his grass.’ But they don’t look at it as the perfect storm that it is.”
Gordon said she doesn’t believe the problem would exist “if there was life next door.”
She said she would like to see the house sold or rented out so that it can be regularly occupied.
“Any expert that I talked to — the Ministry of Natural Resources, Coyote Watch Canada, a trapper out in Fort Erie — said it sounds like (the next-door property is) a perfect breeding ground. I’m not nearly as upset if I’m just in the same pot as everybody else where you noticed a coyote running across a hydro field on your walk with your dog and it was in the distance. But it’s a residential street — right smack in the middle of a neighbourhood.”
After speaking with the Niagara Falls Review Friday, Gordon said the mayor’s office emailed her back to set up a meeting and discuss her situation, including with a bylaw manager.
Mayor Jim Diodati told the Review that like Gordon, he lives along the hydro corridor and regularly sees coyotes.
He said the city has a “buffet” of rodents, which is attracting coyotes.
“The hydro corridor is like a buffet for coyotes to come into the city and grab whatever food is available, and there’s readily available food.”
Diodati said it’s important to meet with Gordon and deal with her personal situation.
“That’s kind of an abandoned house. I did not know that there were coyotes living in the back. If that’s the situation, then we will deal with it with our property standards bylaw.”
He said it’s going to be an ongoing challenge to deal with “two spectrums of the same problem.”
“We have a rodent problem and we have a coyote problem and yet the coyote problem should take care of the rodent problem but that’s not what’s happening right now. My bigger concern is if we’re seeing rodents in the winter … spring time is not going to be pretty.”
