Coyotes in Rossmoor are nothing new, but the recent rash of pet killings and sightings may represent an increase in the danger from the predators’ activities. Rick Francis, Chief of Staff for Orange County Supervisor John W. Moorlach, told www.OC180NEWS.com “It probably won’t be long before there’s an encounter with humans that turns dangerous and nobody wants to see that.”
While there are plenty of sightings and dog/cat killings attributed to the coyotes, there have not been any attacks on humans in Rossmoor. But, if coyotes are adapting to the local urban environment to the point where they are loosing—or have lost—their fear of humans, the risk of a human tragedy increases dramatically.
“Given the area’s proximity to the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and the Joint Forces training Base, those are natural breeding grounds for these things to proliferate and because our flood control channel system and in some cases, our roads even, act as a conduit for travel for these animals, it’s not uncommon for sightings or household animals to be attacked and killed,” said Francis. “These are crafty animals. They have adapted so well to living in urban America, they come and go as they please.”
A growing group of Rossmoor residents, now numbering about 50, have formed the “Rossmoor predator Management Team. This past Sunday, Team member Rebecca Lara and a second team member, chased and photographed a coyote in Rossmoor. The incident occurred at 6:15 am, Sunday, June 13, 2010, 1 1/2 blocks from Weaver Elementary School.
”we were driving in the neighborhood when we saw a coyote with what I thought was a cat in its mouth. I honked, trying to get him to drop it—he did,” Lara told www.OC180NEWS.com. “He dropped a half of a large cat. It was like somebody had taken a butcher’s cleaver and smacked it down on the middle of the cat’s body. This was a clean snap.”
The coyote turned, looked at them, and then began to run. It dropped its kill on Argyle and Oak Knoll. The coyote then ran towards Kempton and Martha Ann. When it saw it could not hide, with one bound, it jumped over a five foot chain link fence into the storm drain. The coyote then headed towards the 605 Freeway.
“There are really three large geographic places {Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, Joint Forces Training Base, and Eldorado Park in Long Beach} where coyotes proliferate and Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Los Alamitos, are right in the middle of that—they’re kind of at ground zero,” said Francis. But, he added “from a county perspective, our animal control—which does service the Rossmoor area—does have a policy where unless an animal is threatening human life, they’re not going to go out and proactively euthanize these things, or trap them.”
So, don’t look to the Orange county Animal Care Department. The Director, Ryan Drabek, told www.OC180NEWS.com “We’re not a service that provides eradication or relocation.”
Since Rossmoor residents do not have a city government to turn to, the Rossmoor Community Services District is trying to help accumulate information about sightings. But General Manager Henry Taboada told us “We have agreed to accept the information from people who send it to us, but we’re not out looking for it nor do we have any responsibility or authority to do that.
Thus, it seems like the place for an unincorporated area like Rossmoor to seek assistance is the California Department of Fish and Game. “Given that these things are wildlife, ultimately it’s Fish and Game,” said Francis. “We would certainly look to them for guidance on how we can better manage things.”
At the request of the Rossmoor Predator Management Team, California Department of Fish and Game Patrol Lieutenant Kent Smirl is getting involved. “People are scared,” he acknowledged. “If it becomes a public safety {issue}, if someone is bit, then we come in and we do an investigation to find out which animal and then the animal has to be eliminated.”
But, according to Smirl, and the California Department of Fish and Game, “We’re just getting started.” He continued “What we do proactively is we educate, and we investigate and that’s what we’re doing right now.”
“We’re in the information gathering stage. But, the Department of Fish and Game is committed to community based education and then we take further action if it is deemed a public safety issue,” Smirl said. “In the event there is a public safety issue, we have to have education to back it up, because if we don’t identify the attractants, they’ll {the coyotes} come back.”
The education is much more than things like not leaving food outside or not leaving a pet or small child unattended outside. “We educate the public to know the difference between an imminent threat and a sighting, they report it back to us and we come in and get involved and we go from there,” Smirl said. The state is setting up a web site where residents can report sightings and this will help determine the degree of the threat and future action by Fish and Game. Stay tuned to www.OC180NEWS.com for more coverage on this evolving issue.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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