Swampscott Coyote Concerns Up For Board Of Health Discussion

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The Swampscott Board of Health will take up the raging coyote conversation going on around town at its next meeting on Tuesday.

The Board of Health updated its agenda for the 6 p.m. meeting on Monday to reflect that former Swampscott Animal Control Office Dan Proulx — who now runs a wildlife rescue company — will be on hand to talk about the recent surge in sightings and too close encounters, including a pair of bites in the Vinnin Square area over a three-week span.

Proulx last week told Patch that residents feeding the coyotes — whether it be out of careless disposal of food, fascination or a misplaced sense of compassion — is contributing to dependence and lack of fear of humans that then puts the coyote in very real danger.

(Also on Patch: How Feeding North Shore Coyotes Is Putting Them In Great Danger)

"These coyotes are being deliberately fed," Proulx told Patch. "People toss food on the ground. Or people are leaving out water for them. The young ones then learn that people have food and go up to them."

Proulx said he believes the human encounters in Swampscott and surrounding North Shore communities are probably only one or two coyotes interacting with humans on multiple occasions.

"I personally think it's only one," he told Patch. "But it's giving them all a bad name."

Proulx proposed to Patch that "everyone has to work together" to help cure the problem of overcurious coyotes. He advocated for what has been referred to as "community coyote hazing" in which neighbors work together to make loud noises with aggressive actions at certain times of coyote activities that create an environment that makes the naturally skittish canines uncomfortable around people.

A link to the virtual meeting can be found here.

(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.)