Coyote trapper Jimmie Rizzo extends a piece of painted wire as he sets one of his homemade snares on a coyote trail in the hills at Cal Poly Pomona. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
After placing traps at Cal Poly Pomona, Rizzo uses an animal call to entice coyotes out of hiding. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Rizzo checks traps he set in a gated neighborhood in Upland. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Rizzo sets the wire noose on a camouflaged homemade trap at Cal Poly Pomona. His services are at once widely sought and controversial, reflecting suburbias conflicted relationship with its wildlife. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Rizzo walks along a trail at Cal Poly Pomona, looking for coyote tracks and a place to set a trap. Coyotes have adapted to civilization like no other predator, often breeding for generations completely detached from the wilderness. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Rizzo checks coyote traps he set in Walnut, where coyotes have been getting into homeowners’ backyards and threatening pets. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
