COYOTE Community CHAOS: A FIX!!! 

ANIMAL WATCH - Coyotes are now invading our neighborhoods and killing our pets on an almost daily basis (see my May 15, 2026 "North Valley News" archived article). The experts say if you kill them, it only changes the mating pattern, and their numbers will keep increasing anyway. Oh, and besides, it's against the law to injure or kill a coyote unless it is specifically attacking a person or pet. So, pleaseeeee don't think that way. It usually only takes loud noises and/or goofy actions to drive them away easily, the experts say.

Presently there is nothing recommended other than "learn to co-exist" by keeping your pets indoors. So, for this worsening problem, the experts and lawmakers have nothing new or more useful to suggest. Yeah, that's right. The biggest Brainiacs got zilch for ya. .. until that is, Jeff Mausner and I had a chat a couple of days ago. (Note: Jeff IS one of those Animal Advocate Extraordinaire Brainiacs).

Jeff was the first to say that he is not a coyote expert. But he also said that what we are doing now obviously isn't enough. The problem has gotten way out of hand, and we need to start looking seriously for additional humane solutions.

One possibility Jeff suggested is an organized coyote sterilization program. Instead of killing coyotes and leaving their territory vacant for other coyotes to move into, what if established coyotes could be sterilized and returned to their territory? They could continue to occupy and defend that territory, but they wouldn't keep producing more coyotes. Jeff has been advocating for serious consideration of this approach for several years in the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates' reports on the Los Angeles Animal Services Department.

And here's the interesting part. This isn't as far-fetched as it might sound. Researchers have actually studied sterilized coyotes and found that sterilized coyote pairs can continue to maintain their territories and pair bonds. So Jeff's suggestion deserves a serious look by wildlife experts. It may or may not prove practical on the scale we need in Southern California, but when the present approach isn't solving the problem, shouldn't we at least investigate humane alternatives that might?

OK, but here's the kicker. Instead of just another ho hum nice idea, a recent California Assembly Bill (i.e. AB 2010) was just signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Could an offshoot turn Jeff's idea into an unanticipated real action plan...soon???

How's that? Well, AB 2010, the Spay and Neuter Improvements for Pets (SNIP) Act, removes a regulatory obstacle that has made it difficult to operate high-volume spay/neuter clinics in temporary or community-based locations. The new law provides that high-volume sterilization of dogs, cats and rabbits does not have to take place in a separate surgical room. That opens the door for Mobile Animal Sterilization Hospital (i.e. MASH) clinics to operate much more easily in communities throughout California, including rural and underserved areas. These pop-up spay/neuter clinics could help reduce the terrible overcrowding of dogs, cats and rabbits in our animal shelters. And if successful, may reduce the need to euthanize healthy innocent animals due to extreme shelter over-population.

So, while AB 2010 was legislated to expand access to spay/neuter services for dogs, cats and rabbits, could the same mobile-clinic concept someday be adapted, with appropriate wildlife expertise and additional legal authority, to a humane coyote sterilization program? AB 2010 itself doesn't authorize sterilization of coyotes, but it certainly provides a very helpful model.

As Jeff envisions it, the objective wouldn't be to completely eliminate coyotes. Coyotes are part of our ecosystem. The objective would be to find out whether sterilizing enough established breeding animals could gradually reduce reproduction while allowing those animals to remain in and defend their existing territories from other coyotes. 

If any of our local State and Assembly representatives are reading this, expect a phone call from me tomorrow. You would think a "Coyote Population Reduction" (i.e. CPR) Act now would be a no-brainer, right? Well, we'll see. Stay tuned to this channel for a possible update.

Be thoughtful, be democratic, be of ken.

(Ken Ross is a retired dentist, former Associate Professor at UCLA Dental School, and a longtime animal advocate. He serves as NENC First Vice President, is a staff writer for Valley News Group, and a regular contributor to CityWatchLA.com.)