Officials React to Coyote Infestation in Massachusetts

AmmoLand ^ | January 5, 2023 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

In 2022, the officials of Nahant, Massachusetts, started noticing they had a coyote problem. The coyotes had become so disdainful of people they had snatched, killed and eaten three pets directly from leashes. Numerous other pets were killed and eaten. No one knows precisely how many.  From December 15, 2022,  abcnews.go.com:

Local officials said eight to 12 coyotes inhabit Nahant, a densely settled town of about 3,300 people on a peninsula about 15 miles north of Boston. The animals have killed pets, including three that were taken straight from leashes held by their owners, said Antonio Barletta, the town administrator.

Coyote populations are on the rise all over the country. They are causing problems, killing pets and livestock and even attacking the occasional person, from California to Texas to now Massachusetts.  Several coyote attacks against people prompted a program to reduce the coyote population in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Nahant town officials decided they needed to reduce the coyote population. They decided to hire federal agents from the Department of Agriculture. From cbsnews.com:

The town of Nahant will become the first community in Massachusetts to bring in trained marksmen to shoot and kill habituated coyotes. Town officials voted Wednesday night to enter into an agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture.

“We have risen to a level of public safety threat in the town,” said resident Vivien Gere who lost her dog Snoopy to an aggressive coyote back in June. “I had him on a short leash and the coyote just took him off the leash and slaughtered him and ran off with him right in front of me.”

[AnAmericanMother]

Depends on how suburban . . . any coyote I see when I'm w/in reach of a rifle is a dead coyote. Cobb allows discharge of firearms on your own land, so long as you're further than 50 yards from a public road. Outside the 5-county metro, it varies but you're pretty much able to reach out and touch Mr. Wiley.

One of the electronic yote-callers is a great tool. I've only seen 2 and haven't heard them like I used to at our old house, but if I start seeing them regularly, I'm investing in one of those callers and setting up shop in my wellhouse.

[AnAmericanMother]

I was driving home late one night, passing through a suburban residential neighborhood (right next to South Cobb High School) and saw a well-fed coyote trotting nonchalantly down the shoulder of the street. He looked at me and then ignored me as he trotted on.

I thought about unlimbering the .380 on him, but not in a residential neighborhood - and I guess it would be hunting from a roadway, which is always frowned upon.

[AnAmericanMother]

That’s a very clever plan!!

[FreedomPoster]

Nice work!

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