Coyotes Attracted To Resident's Feed: Burr Ridge Police

BURR RIDGE, IL — A Burr Ridge police report from November shows residents on Forest Hill Road called police after a woman in her 70s spread feed on the ground that was attracting coyotes. An officer at that time warned the woman she could be cited if she continued to dump feed in her driveway, the report said.

But she apparently failed to stop. On New Year's Eve, an officer found feed on freshly fallen snow in the woman's driveway in the 7800 block of Forest Hill Road and issued the woman a $25 ticket for ground-feeding of wildlife, police said. At the time, the report, which was the subject of a story in Burr Ridge Patch, did not indicate the type of wildlife. On Facebook, however, residents identified the animals as coyotes.

"We would not be calling about a bird feeder," one woman wrote. "The woman has been feeding a pack of coyotes and it has made our neighborhood unsafe for our families."

Comments such as this sparked a debate. "What the heck kinda suburban bull is this? People have too much time on their hands to complain about neighbors feeding animals. Birds and other critters are just trying to survive," another woman said.

When a Burr Ridge police official was asked last week about coyote reports in 2019, the official said there had been none. But readers disagreed when Burr Ridge Patch reported that statement.

One woman wrote, "I know my brother called in several times."

Another Burr Ridge resident posted three photos of coyotes that she said were in her yard last week in Burr Ridge.

"There are many coyotes in Burr Ridge," she said. "Do I need to call the police every time I see one?"

Yet another reader identified a report number from November about the Forest Hill call. Patch filed a public records request for the report and received it Monday.

Coyotes are not new in Burr Ridge. In November 2017, a resident in the 500 block of 87th Street called Burr Ridge police and reported there was a wolf in her backyard. When police arrived, they found a "large coyote" near the retention pond behind the woman's house, a police report said. The coyote "ran away when I approached it," the officer wrote in the report.

Coyotes were in statewide news last week. Last Wednesday afternoon, a 5-year-old boy suffered lacerations to his head when he was reportedly bitten several times by a coyote on Chicago's North Side. Hours after that attack, a 32-year-old man was walking on a sidewalk on the North Side when a coyote came from behind and bit him in the buttocks.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources said coyotes typically "do more good than harm where humans are concerned," although they occasionally kill livestock and domestic pets.

"Attacks on humans are extremely rare considering the range and abundance of coyotes," according to IDNR. "A study published in 2007 found 187 reliable reports of attacks on humans, most of which (157) occurred in California, Arizona and Nevada. Many of these incidents occurred where people were feeding coyotes intentionally, causing them to lose their fear of humans."