FEBRUARY 2012 IN THIS ISSUE:
February 2012
At the heart of coexistence is a healthy relationship. Anyone who has ever tried to improve a relationship knows that these values are important:
- Mutual respect
- Fairness
- Empathy
In this Valentine’s Day issue of Coyote Chronicles, we’d like to share the many ways we’re working — and succeeding — in improving the relationship between people and coyotes (and other wildlife) by promoting the values that support it. Read about our hard work with the Sierra Club to create a national policy against cruel trapping and our efforts to help restrict traps that indiscriminately kill wildlife. Meet our newest Southern California representative, Randi Feilich, who helped her community stop taxpayer funded coyote trapping and adopt one of the most coyote friendly management plans in the country and a model for others to follow.
Featured in this month’s Los Angeles Magazine, Anne Taylor Fleming writes about our relationship with coyotes in Southern California in Call of the Wild. Read her thoughtful words and consider your own relationship with coyotes and other urban wildlife. Read more below…
Camilla H. Fox
Executive Director
Good News!
Relationships are Improving
Helped by Positive Media
Good news is always welcome!
Today, it comes in the form of thoughtful journalism about improving our relationship with the wildlife “at our doorstep.”
We give four paws up to this month’s feature article in the Los Angeles magazine, CALL OF THE WILD. We’re also delighted to point out the Postscript: Call of the Wild also by the well-known author, Ann Fleming, declaring our own Camilla Fox “as fluent and smart a coyote advocate as you can find.”
Acknowledging the importance of coexistence, Ms. Fleming writes, “I am a bit in awe of these wily creatures that have outmaneuvered us humans at every turn. We have tried to poison and trap them, and yet here they are among us — as strong as ever. They have figured out a way to thrive in this great big teeming city, to live alongside us — and, in effect, to reeducate us, to try to teach us how to share this piece of the planet with them.” Postscript
Take a moment to read the short articles highlighted in “Project Coyote in the News” and consider posting them to facebook, tweeting them, and talking to neighbors about coexistence.
Together we can foster healthy relationships with other co-inhabitants of our earth. It takes only a little effort, a little more understanding, and holding tight to the values that make our world — and our lives — better.
In the Spotlight
Meet Randi Feilich
Representing Project Coyote in Southern California
Project Coyote is excited to welcome Randi Feilich — as our new Southern California Representative. Randi initiated the successful ban on city funds being used for trapping and killing coyotes in her community — the city of Calabasas, California. Working with Project Coyote, the city instead adopted a proactive and humane Coyote Management Plan and Educational Outreach Program, shifting the focus from killing to an emphasis on education and the reduction of wildlife attractants.
As recently reported in the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press, Randi is currently leading our effort to try to stop taxpayer subsidized trapping and killing of coyotes in the City of Carson, California — a suburb of Los Angeles. If you have not already done so, please join the 2,000+ people who have signed our online petition on this issue.
“I believe one of Project Coyote’s greatest strengths is empowering citizens and policy makers to implement proactive change for America’s native Song Dog and I am proud to be a part of this effort.” — Thank you Randi, we’re proud to have you aboard! Read more about Randi and other Project Coyote team members.
Take Action!
Sierra Club Members:
Speak up!
Support Proposed Policy on Wildlife Trapping
Are you a Sierra Club member? If so, please make your voice heard in support of a far-reaching policy regarding wildlife trapping.
BACKGROUND: In response to a request made by many concerned Sierra Club wildlife advocates and chapter leaders, the Sierra Club Board of Directors appointed a six member national task force comprised of experts — on which Project Coyote’s Camilla Fox and Dr. Paul Paquet served — to draft a proposed policy regarding wildlife trapping.
The proposed policy recognizes the cruelty and non-selectivity of body-gripping traps that “are indiscriminate to age, sex and species and typically result in injury, pain, suffering, and/or death of target and non-target animals.”
Imperiled species — including Canada lynx — often fall victim to body-gripping traps set for coyotes and other wildlife — as detailed in recent comments submitted by Project Coyote and the Animal Welfare Institute to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding trapping in Maine.
WHY THIS MATTERS: This draft policy will provide clear guidance for Sierra Club chapters and groups so that they can advocate for wildlife planning and management based on the best available science and integrate ethics and animal welfare concerns into decision-making. The proposed policy is now posted on the Sierra Club’s website for a 60 day comment period for members (until March 30th). If you’re a member, please speak up!
Get the Coyote News fact sheet for more facts, tips & tools — and share widely!
December through March is coyote mating season. Usually, only the alpha pair of a family group will reproduce, and only once a year.
Coyotes may climb trees to reach fruit still hanging on thru winter. Yes, they climb trees!
Coyotes sing their most beautiful arias in winter advertising for a mate and singing to an existing mate.
It is extremely unlikely that a coyote will mate with a domestic dog because breeding cycles of the two species are so different.
Happy Valentines Day!
On this day we honor love in its many forms and rededicate ourselves to improving our relationship skills with each other and all life.
Project Coyote in the News
SPEAKING UP FOR AMERICA’S SONG DOG
Stop trapping, killing coyotes in Carson, wildlife group demands
Dances with coyotes: Belmont official sees coexistence as best way to manage predators
Spreading the Message:
The Power of Film
Film is a powerful way to reach people with a message. Recognizing this, Project Coyote works with filmmakers nationally and internationally to help tell our story about North America’s native Song Dog and about why predators matter.
American Coyote ~ Still Wild at Heart, produced by Project Coyote friend American Coyote and talented San Francisco-based filmmaker Melissa Peabody is a fantastic 30-minute documentary that traces the remarkable adaptability and intelligence of coyotes, and presents the challenges and opportunities of living with this native wild carnivore in both urban and rural communities.
Across the country, Project Coyote Representatives and volunteers are helping to get this film shown in their communities at film festivals, libraries, conferences, and on public access TV stations and PBS affiliates.
This Valentine’s Day we are offering a special membership promotion to make it easier for caring people like you to help spread this important film far and wide. Join Project Coyote online today (or by check) and for a minimum donation of $50, we’ll send you a free copy of American Coyote (when ordering online, please write American Coyote DVD in the “comments and questions” box).
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For America’s Song Dog,
Thank you.
“We did our research and found there are ways to live with coyotes in urban areas…with the help of Project Coyote…we’ve started a public education campaign. The key is to make people aware of the coyotes’ existence.”