A Call For North Shore Coyote Response Plans Amid Mating, Pup Season

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — North Shore residents looking for ways to protect the regional coyote population as at least one area town has approved a "kill plan" for what it called "problem and habituated" animals are invited to attend a virtual presentation on "Living with Coyotes" on Tuesday night.

Deb Newman, who has spoken with Patch about alternatives to what she called "Nahant's plan to annihilate coyotes," said the presentation will help residents and municipal leaders develop what she called a "much-needed approach to co-existence that will help all of us understand coyote behavior while learning to manage our own."

"Coyote activity is on the rise in our urban and suburban locales, especially now, when pupping season is imminent," Newman said. "Nahant has the dubious distinction of being first in our otherwise progressive state to vote to eradicate a family of coyotes who live on the peninsula.

"However, other coyotes will replace them, so we must learn how to accept coyotes' presence among us."

Newman said that towns having a "coyote response plan" is key to keeping the relationship between humans and residents coyotes from getting to the point where towns, like Nahant, have proposed and approved what many would consider extreme elimination methods.

"I know some of you on the (Swampscott Select Board) and (Town Administrator) Sean (Fitzgerald) said you would never want to vote to kill coyotes in Swampscott," Newman told the Select Board last Thursday. "However, if our town does not prepare itself for this already-latent need to prevent further conflict with coyotes, all of you may come to believe that killing is your only option."

Humane Wildlife Inc. expert Rebecca Dmytryk will host the online presentation on coyote basics, preventing and resolving conflicts with the wild canines, keeping pets safe and the benefits of a "coyote response plan."

Dmytryk will offer guidance to municipalities in the development and implementation of coyote response strategies that are tailored to a site's unique environment, and where needed, she readily provides boots-on-the-ground assistance.

The virtual meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. with those seeking to attend able to register here.

Newman told the Select Board the information session has to be part of a greater municipal strategy for humanely dealing with the coyote population.

"You can't expect the average suburbanite to become an expert on mitigating coyote behavior," Newman told the Select Board. "While education is necessary, most of us do not want to be inconvenienced by changing our own behavior to accommodate the needs of wildlife. We will have to do that but many people are even afraid of relatively benign wild animals — the turkeys, raccoons or a skunk — so expecting residents to respond calmly and appropriately to a coyote encounter is expecting too much.

"Preventing the problem is the key to preventing people's fear and resulting anger."

Newman said the "coyote response plan" will help residents from falling into what she called the "fear and hysteria" that led up to Nahant's plan to "dispatch" coyotes.

"When I use the term 'dispatch' I mean take the animal, remove the animal, kill the animal," Nahant Town Administrator Antonio Barletta clarified before the December vote to authorize its plan.

"This takes a task force composed of people who really know how to consistently implement the right methods," Newman said, adding that she would also like the Select Board to consider a bylaw against feeding wildlife to be presented at a future town meeting.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)