When I lived out in the country in rural Idaho, we had coyotes coming around the house all the time, and I made sure to have my little dogs all inside when late afternoon came, and went outside with them if they went out before bedtime.
Now, the coyotes are moving into the cities, where food is easy to come by, and there are no natural enemies for them. it used to be that people shot at a coyote when they saw one, and wild animals were afraid of humans. But with all the new laws protecting these wild predators, they are becoming bolder and bolder.
They are also attacking our pets, and people who live in the cities where the coyote population is rampant have sometimes had to fight off coyotes that were trying to kill their dog (or cat). Even children have been attacked by coyotes, but the local government is not doing anything except telling people that they have to learn to live with the urban coyotes.
This is scary! I live in the Philippines, and thankfully, there are no coyotes here. However, while I was watching news the other day, it was reported that some men are roving around the cities taking dogs and cats. They are not after selling them though. They are taking the dogs and cats to feed exotic animals such as crocodiles and snakes. Another predator here in my country are the humans. Dog meat trade is an illegal but rampant trade. We lost two dogs already, and we suspect that they were taken by traders because there was no trace of them anymore. It was as if our dogs vanished into thin air. We reported our lost dogs to the police and community outpost, but they couldn't do anything to retrieve our pets anymore.
That is truly horrible ! ! It is bad enough to lose your pet that you love so much, and believe that a coyote or other predator has killed them; but it would be so much worse to think that some person had taken them to kill and eat them.
I have heard stories about the Chinese restaurants catching alley cats and using that for their sweet and sour chicken, but I thought that it has pretty well been stopped. But apparently, it is still happening a lot inother countries.
You must have to guard your pets very close, with all the dangers that you have to watch out for.
It would be easy for someone to lure a friendly dog over to the fence of the yard and then grab them.
Feeding the poor little dogs and cats to alligators and snakes is about too awful to even think about ! The poor little kitties and puppies would be eaten alive. How horrible !
I hope that you are able to keep your little ones safe, Hela .
I am heartbroken reading both of those posts. That is horrific and I'm so sorry you have to go through that living in the Philippines. I really wonder what our world is coming to. We live in Florida and we have to worry about alligators and bobcats!! uugghh. I have heard there are other wild animals as well. I worry about letting our dogs out especially at night. Our yard is not fenced in but we do keep them on a leash and they only go out for a few minutes and then we bring them right back in.
The scary thing here in Florida ( may be other places as well) is that you have to watch out for your dogs when their outside because people are stealing them here too!! Dog fighters are on the look out for dogs unattended to take them and use them as bait dogs for dog fighting rings.
What a terrible thing to even think about. I just pray that our world gets better instead of always getting worse.
I guess we are lucky here in the UK. We do have that worst of 2 legged predators ie man, but natural predators are less of a problem. I guess the only one that ever used to bother was not even a predator as such in that adders bite in defence not to try to eat the dog but it could still be fatal (I imagine you have problems with venomous snakes elsewhere was well). However in the last few years there has been a growing problem with foxes - especially in the urban areas becoming aggressive towards small dog breeds and cats not to mention humans. As was observed about coyotes I consider a major cause of this to be a change in attitude from aggression towards them to "leave nature alone". Unfortunately this is not going to do foxes any favours in the long run - they are being forced into an ecological niche nature did not intend them to inhabit, that of apex predator.
I think people need to start understanding that man is part of nature too and while he should not be randomly and massively killing things neither he be failing to defend himself against them. There is a world of difference between paying a bounty on every head no matter how killed - trap poison gun, and limited killing of only those animals which become a problem.
Puppet, I totally agree with you about this issue ! We need to be more humane with animals in how we treat them; but simply letting them multiply and invade our cities where they have no natural enemies to provide population control, is not a good thing either.
None of us wants to lose our belived dogs or cats in a vicious attack; let alone if a wild pack of coyotes should attack someone's child and maul it to death.
It seems like we go to one extreme ot the other with this.
Animals that are raised for food (at least here in the United States) live horrible lives, and often die a terrible death. There needs to be better regulations and laws to prevent companies from doing this.
The other side of the coin is that we now protect so many wild animals that they are able to multiply until theyare over-running the populated areas because they have learned that there is no danger for them there.
Neither of these things is a good thing. As you stated, we need to protect animals; but not allow them to take over.
Coyotes are a problem in my area too. They don't come into town much but people who live near the edge of town can have problems. It's really unfortunate because pets want to be outside some of the time. I have a friend that lost a cat, probably to coyotes. But she decided she would rather her cats live be happy even if their lives are shorter than to always be frustrated and wanting to go out.
Even large birds can attack and kill a cat or small dog. We lived one place where there were hawks in the area, and I only let the little dogs outside when I could be outside with them to watch out for the hawks.
Often, I would see them circling around, but always high in the air, so I knew the dogs were safe.
I have heard stories of very large birds, such as eagles, taking dogs, and even small children. They are just SO fast when they swoop down upon a prey that you can't do anything even if you are close by. That is why it is so important to be watching and scare them away if they even look like they are watching your small pet.
I live in Southern California and everyone here thinks coyotes are these nice creatures that just eat the bunnies. I've lived in the country with huge packs of coyotes and don't think your bigger dogs are safe. My sister had a full grown yellow lab and when she was giving off pheromones that she was ready to mate, the coyotes came by. One of them tricked her into leaving the safety of the house and into the pasture. There the pack surrounded her and ate her. My sister's boyfriend at the time, had to watch. He didn't have a gun at the time so he couldn't do anything. Coyotes are mean, smaller versions of wolves and should be treated as such.
Coyotes are not conducive animals near the home environment. These wild canines prey on mice and rats which are nasty little pets. A pet owner should carry o preventive measures to limit these attacks. Someone can be able to tell a coyote attacked a pet through coyote tracks which are similar to dog tracks but they are thinner. Coyotes bite large animals directly behind the throat or jugular area and the victim may did due to suffocation. These animals are also known to attack humans. A good fence prevents coyotes from entering your yard. Feed pets indoors and install motion sensitive lights in your backward for small animals that may attract coyotes and provide them with a hideout.
06-03-2016, 05:11 PM, (This post was last modified: 06-03-2016, 05:11 PM by Corzhens.)
We used to live in my husband's ancestral house together with his 2 sisters. Since their parents were in the US, we occupied the master's bedroom where there is a good view of the gate. The boy neighbor had 2 young pigeons that he wanted to train for racing. But when his parents disallowed him, the boy asked a favor from my husband so he can temporarily keep the cage in our front yard. Okay, granted.
After a few days, my husband was cleaning our bedroom when he noticed 2 boys of about 10 to 12 years old throwing their slippers over their head and higher and higher until one slipper dropped inside our property. After looking around, one boy opened the gate and entered, followed by his pal. And they went straight to the pigeon's cage. But before they could open the cage, there came my husband and collared the 2 thieves.
After the boys admitted their sinister motives on the pigeon, my husband offered a deal. The 2 boys stopped crying and hastily agreed to clean our yard. And after 1 hour, they were free again.
06-04-2016, 02:52 AM, (This post was last modified: 06-04-2016, 02:53 AM by kfander.)
I live on a half acre in town. When we first moved here, we didn't have a problem with animal predators, since most people didn't even have dogs, and those who did didn't allow them to roam free. However, we have a railroad track in back of our house that leads to a paper mill that is no longer in operation. Since trains no longer travel on the tracks, fox and coyotes will use the tracks to make their way into town during the night, particularly since there is brush along the sides of the railroad right-of-way. It's not a huge problem yet but I wouldn't let my cats do outside at night anymore.
I haven't seen any coyotes yet but others have reported seeing them along the track, and I have set up wildlife cameras in my backyard that have captured the image of a fox here one night. For cats, raccoons can also be a danger. Not only are the particularly susceptible to rabies but most cats won't stand much of a chance in a fight against a healthy raccoon. Years ago, when I was still allowing my cats outdoors at night, all four of my cats came flying in the cat door one night, followed by a raccoon.
While I don't have to worry about coyote's on Vancouver Island, we have our own predator problems to deal with, as I understand from the previous posts, so does almost any part of the world inhabited by humans, domesticated animals and non domesticated animals. But just like coyotes, the predator we have around here has protection from being harmed as well; it almost makes me mad that my cat is not on an endangered species list.
The predator I'm talking about is eagles. I'm not sure how bad it is in the part of the island where I live, but in Campbell River, not 70 miles from where I am. the problem is so bad that when the eagles are seen out hunting, radio warnings are issued to pet owners to bring their small breed dogs and cats inside. Anyone thinking that an eagle will not hurt a domestic animal can think again, it was on the news here and they even showed an "eagle cam" featuring a dead cat in an eagle's nest. Since seeing that news segment, I've been watching the sky and sure enough there is an eagle that regularly circles my neighborhood. It just makes me ill to think of my poor Hank being scooped up and flown off with. I mentioned it to my boyfriend and he said he'd kill any eagle carting Hank off so I looked it up on the web and sure enough, harming an eagle is illegal. But what about our beautiful and much loved pets? Whose going to be responsible if one of these protected birds gets a taste for cat chow? I read up on the eating habits of eagles and apparently they are very good and taking advantage of whatever food source is readily available to them and domestic cats are plentiful around here as well as sitting ducks because they aren't expecting to be prey. All I can say to the owners of any pet smaller than say a standard poodle, be aware of what types of wild animals are native to your area, both in the sky and on land. Don't let your loving pet fall victim to the appetite of a predatory animal.
That is horrific and I'm so sorry you have to go through that living in the Philippines. I really wonder what our world is coming to. 
