Bags of Food Lure Coyotes, Alarm Neighborhood

Wildlife officers are looking for an apparent animal lover who is luring coyotes into a Sherman Oaks neighborhood by leaving bags of food on the streets.

Hundreds of lunch bags filled with dog food have been placed along hillside roads east of Beverly Glen Boulevard the past two weeks, City of Los Angeles animal-regulation officers said Monday.

As a result, jittery homeowners in an expensive neighborhood south of Ventura Boulevard have sighted coyotes in yards and on busy streets.

“I looked out into my backyard Sunday morning and saw two of them romping,” said Carolyn Fox, a 20-year resident of Stansbury Avenue.

“They were rolling in the grass and having a great time. They ran when they heard us. They sailed right over our six-foot chain-link fence,” she said.

Animal-control officers said they have asked the city attorney’s office to consider filing a nuisance or public-health-hazard complaint against the person leaving the food.

“Whoever is doing this is doing a great injustice to both the residents and the coyotes,” Pam Hanna, a city wildlife officer, said Monday as she collected the latest food bags from Camino de la Cumbre.

“When the person doing the feeding stops, the coyotes will go into the neighborhood and take small dogs and cats,” she said.

Hanna said as many as 20 small brown bags of food are being left at the sides of roads each night.

“Somebody’s spending an awful lot of time and money to do this,” she said. “I’m hoping they have the best intentions in the world. But it is causing problems. What if a coyote goes after some little kid’s lunch bag by mistake?”

Although coyotes rarely attack human beings, they have bitten several children in the Los Angeles area in recent years.

A 3-year-old Glendale girl was fatally mauled by a coyote in 1981, and non-fatal attacks on children have been reported since in Burbank, San Clemente and Westlake Village. The most recent occurred in February in Yorba Linda.

Julia Elias, operator of a small Sherman Oaks day-care center, said she has begun closely monitoring the children’s outdoor playtime since her son saw a coyote walking down a street near the center last week.

“My son lives in Big Bear, so it was no big thing to him,” Elias said. “But I’m being extra-cautious.”

Phil Talbott, who has lived in Sherman Oaks 31 years, said he has seen an increasing number of coyotes on hillside streets, particularly during the day. “They’re getting braver,” he said.

Dog Almost Seized

“Our dog was almost carried off by a coyote,” said 12-year-old Todd Hagler, adding that he is worried about coyotes feasting on dogs and cats if they are drawn deeper into the neighborhood.

Jack Boyd, a resident of the area since 1957, said he had feared someone was poisoning the coyotes when he first noticed the roadside food bags.

“But they still look healthy. I haven’t seen any dead animals. I think everyone around here is an animal lover,” Boyd said.

Hanna said she has had samples of the roadside food analyzed in a lab to determine if it was poisoned. It was not.

But, if coyotes that eat the food and then wander into the residential area become a nuisance to homeowners, they will be trapped and killed, she said.

Hanna said it would be necessary to kill them because coyotes return unless taken at least 75 miles away.

City animal-control officers trap about 100 coyotes a year. Los Angeles County animal regulation officers trap another 150 or so a year, primarily when the animals are considered a threat to pets or wildlife.

Hanna urged hillside residents to keep their dogs and cats inside. “They should not be let out alone,” she said.