Rerouting of Phone Calls About Coyotes Prompts Outcry

A 7-month-old ban on coyote trapping in the city has generated about 30 calls daily to animal regulation officers in the West San Fernando Valley--so many that the officers have been told by their bosses to stop responding directly.

The Animal Regulation Department instead has asked that all coyote questions be referred to an animal regulation spokeswoman in Downtown Los Angeles. But the decision to refer the coyote questions away from animal regulation officers has infuriated some residents, who want to talk directly with the officers.

“It’s a problem when people have a pressing problem . . . and cannot get an answer from officers with 30 years of field experience,” said Michael Lazarou, a Woodland Hills resident who formed a Valley homeowners group that wants the city to lift the trapping ban.

He says his 19-month-old son was stalked by a coyote last month in his back yard, and that incident turned him--literally overnight--into an activist on coyote issues.

Animal regulation officials, meanwhile, said the dozens of coyote questions received daily had prevented officers from performing their duties in the field.

“It was not a gag order but a way to alleviate the overload,” animal regulation spokeswoman Nancy Moriarty said of the new policy.

The controversy over phone calls is the latest development in a contentious debate that began in June when the Board of Animal Regulation Commissioners voted to halt the trapping of coyotes by city employees. Because the ban was partly aimed at saving the city money and freeing animal regulation officers for other duties--not at saving the coyotes--residents still are allowed to hire a certified pest control company to trap the animals.

Although the ban was supported by animal rights organizations, it infuriated some hillside residents, who have grown concerned over an increase in coyote sightings and attacks on pets.