protecting your pet from predators .

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.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Man...32741.html

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.

Thanks for listening....
Danyel

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.