Coyotes versus cats

Re “Turf battle pits feral cats against predatory coyotes,” July 14

I am one of the volunteers who helps manage the feral cats at Cal State Long Beach. Adult feral cats, even the few tame ones, cannot adapt to domestic life. Therefore, the university’s order to remove the feral colony to discourage coyotes simple means “kill the cats.” Coyotes find the campus attractive because of its excellent food and water resources. University officials say that coyotes have killed cats there in the last few weeks. This means that other campus wildlife, and possibly garbage, constitute the primary sources of coyote sustenance.

Once Cal State Long Beach controls the garbage and exterminates all animal life on campus, the next step for the coyotes will be: No problem, just saunter off into the surrounding residential community and endanger the neighbors’ children and pets.

Dorothy Burstein

Los Alamitos

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First, let me say I am not a cat-hater; my wife and I have always had one or more during our 46 years together. But there is a factor that is not being considered in the debate, and that is that cats are not indigenous to California and coyotes are. Coyotes are part of our natural ecosystem and keep the population of their prey in check. Cats, on the other hand, kill hundreds of millions of birds a year in the U.S. Many of the birds killed are at risk or endangered. So those well-meaning folks who are feeding the feral cats and object to their removal are unwittingly contributing to the decimation of our native bird population.

Alan Pollack

Woodland Hills

The writer is chairman of the San Fernando Valley Audubon at Home program.