Truth is on her side - and she’s not apologizing

The following is Pamelyn Ferdin’s reply to a News-Press editorial

published on April 10-11. The response is similar to a form letter

e-mailed to others criticizing Ms. Ferdin for her remarks.

Dear Mr. Keating (News-Press):

Although I seldom reply to ill-informed criticism of my actions as

an activist, your article was so sadly mistaken, I feel the need to

correct your misconceptions. While you may or may not be a fan of my

previous work, it is painfully obvious you do not share my compassion

for the living beings, including humans, with whom we share this

small planet.

From your comments, it is also painfully obvious you either did

not hear what I said at the Glendale City Council meeting of April 6,

or your misinterpretation of my remarks has led you to erroneous

conclusions. Though I feel it is highly unlikely a coyote killed

Kelly Keen, I never accused her parents of killing her. I said simply

that based on the evidence I have been made aware of by those

professionals, like myself, who were caring for Kelly, as well as the

extensive investigation conducted by a private citizen after her

death, that the child died not from a coyote bite but by blunt trauma

such as that sustained in a beating.

The reasons I am sure Kelly was not killed by a coyote are:

1. She was treated for, and likely died of, a ruptured spleen,

according to first-hand information from a credible source. For your

information, a coyote does not have the ability to rupture a child’s

spleen externally. As a former trauma nurse married to a trauma

surgeon, I can state this with no degree of uncertainty.

2. The little girl was cremated very quickly after her death; no

further pathology could have been performed with a certified

biologist in attendance. Dr. Bill Wirtz of Pomona University is a

major authority on the history and habits of both urban and plains

coyotes, and at the time placed some doubt on the scenario played out

so sensationally in the press.

3. During a subsequent investigation into the death, all the

hospital records for Kelly Keen’s last hospitalization were noted to

have mysteriously disappeared.

4. A physician participating in the investigation was threatened

into dropping the case.

5. It is impossible for a coyote typically weighing 30 pounds to

drag a child his own body weight 90 yards in the time proscribed to

the event.

6. There were no reports that any neighbors heard any noises, such

as those of a child screaming while being attacked. Anyone who has

heard a coyote kill a rabbit has heard the noise the victim makes

while being killed.

7. Never in the 500-year history of the United States, before 1981

or since, anywhere, anytime, has another coyote killed a human being.

How can any reasonable person believe that nearly a quarter of a

century ago, a coyote for the first time EVER IN HISTORY comes into

Glendale and kills a human child? Why has it never happened again? I

think you are silly for believing such a far-fetched tale, and can

only continue to marvel at the vehemence with which I have been

attacked for exposing the fallacy of this story.

Whether Kelly was killed by a coyote or not is not even relevant

to the issue for which I took time to come to the town of Glendale

and speak out. More children die from bee stings in a month than were

supposedly killed by coyotes in 500 years. Slaughtering dozens of

coyotes in revenge, a repeat of 1981, when 40 innocent animals were

murdered to avenge a child’s death, will not make Glendale a better

place. It won’t prevent a coyote attack, which hasn’t occurred in the

last 23 years even if you believe the outrageous story of the Keens,

and it won’t even decrease the number of the coyotes in the area for

very long.

Lastly, the threat of a lawsuit by Ms. Keen is laughable. I have

every right to say what I believe, based on the evidence at my

disposal. Heck, I hope she does sue; I will use the exposure to

continue publicizing the stupidity of Glendale’s plan to trap and

kill local coyotes in a misguided attempt to protect children and

property values. My lawyers are standing by to make a spectacle of

the issue if that is what the Keens prefer.

The truth is on my side, and I sincerely hope you and others with

illogical and emotional axes to grind will come to your collective

senses.

I certainly owe no one an apology; Glendale City Council owes an

apology to the innocent coyotes and their pups who were gassed to

death in their dens because of a sloppy police and coroner

investigation into a little girl’s unfortunate death.

Sincerely,

PAMELYN FERDIN