Coyote Chaos: Swampscott Board Of Health Takes Steps To Curb Feeding

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott officials are looking to step up pressure on any homeowners or restaurant workers feeding coyotes to stop doing so with signs discouraging the practice, fines in a proposed town bylaw against it and education that a coyote that becomes dependent on and loses its fear of humans will likely have to be destroyed.

"People who think they are doing a good thing by feeding an animal might end up killing that animal," Board of Health Chair Marianne Hartmann said during an hourlong discussion on the town's recent coyote chaos Tuesday night.

Former Swampscott Animal Control Officer Dan Proulx was a special guest of the Board of Health to discuss two recent bitings in the Vinnin Square area, the apparent increase in the number of coyotes seen and the boldness of their interaction with humans — especially in the area of the Tedesco Country Club.

Both Proulx and Hartmann said many of the issues can be traced back directly to instances of humans feeding coyotes either out of fascination, carelessness or a misplaced sense of compassion.

"This has been going on for many years," Hartmann said. "People think they are doing something good. They think a coyote looks skinny or hungry so they'll feed these animals. They think they're doing a good thing. And they're really not.

"They are habituating these animals to humans and the animals are associating humans with food. Once that starts to happen, you cannot undo it. And the animal will always consider that people equal food. They will teach their pups that is something to do as well."

Hartmann did not mince words about what will likely need to happen to the one or more coyotes around Swampscott and neighboring towns where this has become the case.

"It's really unhealthy for the animal and it's really unhealthy for the people," she said. "They are going to end up causing the animal to have to be destroyed because there is no way to untrain that animal."

It is illegal to relocate an animal that has been determined to be a danger to humans.

Proulx said there is plenty of room in Swampscott to "push coyotes back beyond the woodline" and that he believes some of their boldness in recent years may be because of a lack of enforcement of littering laws and other minor offenses because of the COVID-19 health crisis.

He said there are likely fewer coyotes circulating than it seems because they can cover great distances. He reiterated what he told Patch last week that he believes it may only be one or two that are actually approaching humans for food in Vinnin Square and the surrounding areas but that those few coyotes "are giving all of them a bad name."

Proulx said that eradicating the coyotes from town — as some have proposed on social media —would come with even more undesirable consequences.

"If we eliminate the coyotes we would become so overrun with rats and mice that people would lose it," Proulx said.

The Board of Health decided to deliver notices to downtown businesses informing business owners, workers and visitors about the dangers of feeding coyotes. They said a town bylaw proposal that would likely carry fines for doing so will likely be considered at the fall town meeting.

Beyond not feeding the canines, Proulx advocated for what is referred to as "coyote community hazing" that could include a "scaring minute" where a whole neighborhood goes out at a certain time at dusk and bangs pots and pans to create an uncomfortable space for coyotes and convince them to stay out of residential areas.

"I want to see the best ending possible and for nobody else to get hurt," he said. "We need to push the coyotes back beyond the woodline.

"If a coyote becomes too overfriendly it doesn't look good for that coyote."

(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.)