People Need to Learn to Live With Coyotes

* A mere seven months after the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation stops its coyote trapping policy, a few hillside Valley residents cry wolf, or in this case coyote, and The Times reacts with a call to arms against the much maligned and misunderstood coyote (Valley Editorials, Nov. 21).

If there is any anxiety about increased coyote sightings, we should be focusing on giving some good advice about living with wildlife rather than coddle fears by arguing for the reconsideration of a cruel policy. Those hillside residents should wildlife-proof their property, protect their children by not allowing them to play unattended in unprotected areas, and keep their pets in at night.

If indeed there is a problem with an increased coyote population--which I highly doubt--then let us trap coyotes in box traps and relocate them to more remote areas.

The previous department policy was cruel and needed to be stopped, not for legal but for moral reasons, because it trapped coyotes, as well as any other wildlife or pets, in the cruel and inhumane leg-hold trap. To reconsider a return to the leg-hold trap is unacceptable and was not even addressed in The Times’ editorial.

JOHN DeVINCENT

Glendale