Coyotoes on the Loose
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, wild coyotes attacked a pet dog in Golden Gate Park today. It’s not a surprise that the coyotes live there, there have been a number of them living in the city for some time. People are a bit taken aback by the fact that they are lashing out at dogs (after all, dogs are the new babies).
In a statement to the Chronicle, the Animal Control Department says that “We have officers looking for the coyotes, and we are letting the public know about these coyotes.” Okay, great. What exactly does that mean. They are “looking” for the coyotes? What are they going to do to them? Is that like when parents tell a kid that their dog “went to live on a farm”?
I think people should keep an eye on their pets and learn to live with wild animals. You can’t be 100% insulated from natural world all the time, especially if you choose to go to a huge park that has a lot of nature in it. The Chronicle article says that “the coyote bit a Rhodesian ridgeback, a large type of dog that can weigh more than 100 pounds and was originally bred to hunt lions.” According to wikipedia, the end-all be-all authority on every topic, the average coyote weighs 31 lbs. The average adult Rhodesian ridgeback (also known as the African Lion Hound) weighs 70-85 lbs. and has been known to grow to 160 lbs. If a dog that was bred to assist in the hunting of lions can’t stand up to a coyote less than half its size it’s clearly a case of the dog being a total wuss.
I hope that people leave the coyotes alone and let them do whatever they normally do. There isn’t a whole lot of space left for nature, which is made very obvious by this sign on Ocean Beach:
Apparently unleashed dogs bother endangered animals, but people having drunken, out of control parties on the beach and massive amounts of graffiti do not bother them.
And now, for Matt, an embarrassing photo from his birthday party at Zeitgeist:
the SFgate article, the web-affiliate of the Chronicle, also mentions that researchers attached a tracking device to a coyote living in the Presidio, and found that the animal traveled to Daly City and back during just one daily excursion; a few paragraphs later, the article mentions that since 2004 (why 2004?), coyotes have been living a few miles from The White House….uh-oh. If not even a Rhodesian ridgeback, originally bred to hunt lions (my Swedish friend who grew up in Kenya had one; she said she–the dog–was very very very smart, casting further questions on the SF Rhodesian story…what was that dog up to? Not pestering the smaller coyotes, or coyote pups, by chance?); anyway, if not even ridgebacks are safe, can the Prez be far behind?