Trapping Contract Betrays Laguna’s Ethos

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Editor:

I have been peripherally involved with the conversation about coyotes in Laguna Beach for a couple of months and have seen the civil conversation turn into near hysteria. Then I watched City Council vote to continue inhumane trapping and killing, despite the fact that the traps can snare other animals and that the killing methods are akin to the electrocutions performed at shelters in Tijuana.

I was and am appalled. I think Council members are typically fair and honest folks who do their best even amid lengthy controversies. But I believe the vote to trap and kill is misguided. (Thank you Mayor Dicterow for being the voice of dissent.)

We in Laguna Beach defend sea lions, we have a marine preserve and we all were outraged at the destruction of a well-known sea star last summer. Nearly 30 years ago, we voted to spend millions of dollars to preserve open space for its beauty and our enjoyment, but mainly to preserve the natural coast for both the wildlife and vegetation it holds. If we have now become a city where residents prefer to kill that wildlife, then we might as well sell it off to Irvine or Aliso Viejo to build more row houses and malls.

If we have become a city of folks who care only for our personal pets, then we must be paying mere lip service to the concept of humane treatment of animals. Dog parades, shelter fundraisers and similar feel-good measures help some animals, but do little to demonstrate our overall humanity if we turn around and offer the gas chamber to other species. Either we are of a humane bent or we are not.

My neighborhood is rife with coyotes—and rabbits and possums and raccoons and bobcats and deer. We even have a couple of roadrunners. Remove the current crop of coyotes we hear regularly in the surrounding hills, and new ones that may be more aggressive will move in. But use deterrents, like a walking stick with bear bells, a whistle, a flashlight, a safe enclosure that gives your pets outdoor access or invisible screens for your doors and you will deter the coyotes, who also are suffering from the drought. They are opportunists, and if the opportunity is too challenging, they’ll leave.

Other cities are exploring and employing methods of eliminating the coyote threat without barbarian measures. I hope Laguna Beach will take the high road and reconsider those options in the very near future.

 

Sandi Cain, Laguna Beach

 

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