Coyote Solution Cannot be Killing Them All!

skoblik@huntington.org, publicinformation@huntington.org, ssmith@kinsmith.com, peter.barker@gs.com, pgh@capgroup.com, rothenberg.anne@gmail.com, genevathornton@earthlink.net

Mr. Steven Koblik, President
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108

Stewart R. Smith, Chair
Peter K. Barker  
Paul G. Haaga, Jr.
Anne F. Rothenberg
Geneva H. Thornton


Dear Mr. Koblik,
Dear Sirs,

I am dismayed to learn the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens has one solution for coyotes on its property: Kill them. I respectfully ask you implement enduring and nonviolent means to coexist with wildlife. Visitor education and humane deterrents would certainly enhance your image more than neck snares and death.

Wiping out indigenous wildlife commonly triggers more problems than it resolves. Coyotes are integral to Los Angeles basin ecosystems. Killing them offsets natural cycles. For example, coyotes and foxes prey on rodents; when coyote numbers drop, rodent and smaller carnivore populations rise. Ultimately, coyotes offset the decline by reproducing more quickly and boosting their numbers to pre-slaughter levels or higher.

Moreover, snaring is ruthless. The steel-cable loop designed to strangle an animal within minutes usually fails. Necropsies of snared coyotes reveal that 63% suffer hemorrhaging (evidenced by grossly swollen heads), bloodied
eyes, and broken teeth from trying to gnaw through the snare. Some animals
break their own limbs to escape the pain.

A trap-and-kill approach to coyote conflicts is never ecologically or ethically defensible. Please stop Huntington's ³coyote abatement program."

I encourage you to partner with wildlife organizations that can help devise
site-specific solutions for humane coexistence instead of extermination.

Yours sincerely,