Caltrans repeatedly insisted there were no coyotes on their freeway right of way which is now part of the freeway construction. (See our numerous articles on this subject in the “Other articles” below.) Of course, nobody living on Martha Ann, adjacent to part of the construction site was the least bit surprised when a trapper caught four of the predators in this very same strip of “no coyote” Caltrans land. But, the trapping certainly has not rid Rossmoor of the problem.
About a month ago, OC180NEWS reported on an attack on Donnie Ann (see related article below), and now a coyote has returned to the very same home.
“It was about 3:30 Thursday morning [July 28, 2011],” John Muccino told OC180NEWS. “I saw it cross our sidewalk while I was getting a snack that evening.”
The earlier attack was witnessed by Karen Muccino at about the same time of night.
“We have a real big problem on Donnie Ann in Rossmoor,” Karen Muccino told OC180NEWS. “I’m hoping to get attention so that somebody will come and eradicate these annoying animals from our neighborhood because my dog got attacked and now we feel like we are prisoners and can’t even go out in our yard. My neighbors have also seen coyotes in their backyards.”
It is not known if the second appearance was by the same coyote which attacked Karen Muccino’s little dog. Although seriously injured, the dog survived and the coyote got away. It certainly would not surprise Rebecca Lara, a local coyote expert and a founder of the Rossmoor Predator Management Team, if it was the very same coyote.
“Please be aware that a coyote will return to where it has attacked or killed,” wrote Lara in a recent email. “REMEMBER before letting your dog out to the backyard especially late at night or early morning, check the yard to make sure no wildlife is present. Carry a stick and make noise to scare the animal away.”
The sighting on Donnie Ann was the second reported sighting last week. This sighting was reported to the Rossmoor Predator Management Team, and they forwarded the report to OC180NEWS. We were not able to identify the person making the report and thus, we could not independently confirm this incident. Nevertheless, here is what was reported:
“My husband was walking our dogs at 2 am and spotted a coyote walking toward our boxer and cavalier. He screamed at it and it ran away, but at first he showed no fear of my husband.
This was Monday night [July 25, 2011] 2 am by Kensington and Shakespeare. He said it was the size of a German Shepherd.
Please share”
Coyotes which lack a natural fear of humans suggest animals which are getting to comfortable for comfort. When the predators get too comfortable, they can get more aggressive toward pets, and even humans. The coyote attacks in Rossmoor have been directed at cats and small dogs. But attacks on small children, while unusual, such attacks are not unheard of.
The danger level for coyote attacks is also ratcheted up when coyotes start showing up during the daylight hours. In their natural environment, coyotes are nocturnal hunters, so day time sightings are considered unusual and potentially represent a more dangerous situation.
The following was submitted by Cindy Lowry of Buena Park:
“I do not live in Los Alamitos but live in Buena Park which is just around the corner. I would just like to put the word out that there was a coyote in our front yard yesterday 7/29/2011 morning. My son has a picture of it. Neighbors around the corner called Animal Control and you could see it being chased by them during the morning hours of approx. 9 to 10 am. I later saw an Animal Control truck on the corner of Knott and Crescent and stopped and asked them if they caught it and they said NO. In telling them that in 25 years of living here in Buena Park (the same track) I had never seen a coyote in this area. They told me they have caught 6 around the LaPalma and Dale area (Buena Park Mall area) in the past couple of months.
Lowry
I just think it is strange that no one has alerted the public regarding this and commend you for putting the word out in your area. I would like to do the same. Thank you,
Cindy”
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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.
In 
RPMT has written the Orange County Board of Supervisors the following letter:
Dear Orange County Board Of Supervisors:
Commencing in May of 2010, the Rossmoor Community in Orange County experienced 40 pet deaths, 19 pet attacks and 4 coyote stalkings of Rossmoor Residents. As a result, Rossmoor Residents formed a group as neighbors and entitled themselves the Rossmoor Predator Management Team currently consisting of 860 neighbors. The Rossmoor Predator Management Team, hereinafter “RPMT”, provides instant email alerts of coyote activity along with lost and found pets accompanied with crime alerts in the Rossmoor Community.
We are extremely appreciative of Board of Supervisor John M.W. Moorlach who has initiated coyote pilot grates over water control channels, improved gates, fences and foundations to channels, expeditiously handled the contract to trap coyotes in our community. However, through all of Supervisor Moorlach’s efforts, communities within Orange County continue to be plagued with the continued coyote attacks and killings.
These attacks have resulted in residents being physically harmed and bitten in attempts to protect their pet from being killed by a coyote.
We are writing to request the creation of an Orange County agency to monitor, regulate and control the over-population of coyotes. The coyote population has expanded beyond control in urban areas largely populated with children and household pets. Los Angeles only developed an Agricultural Commission after the death of a young female child killed by a coyote in 1981.
To continue to ignore the overpopulation of coyotes in Orange County with no governing agency to handle this issue is an absolute threat to the safety of children and senior citizens. Residents are being physically knocked down while attempting to protect their pets. As reported in “COYOTE ATTACKS: AN INCREASING SUBURBAN PROBLEM” by wildlife biologists Dr. Robert M. Tuimm, Rex O. Baker, Joe R. Bennett and Craig C. Coolahan:
“Based on an analysis of coyote attacks previously described, there is a predictable sequence of observed changes in coyote behavior that indicates an increasing risk to human safety (Baker and Timm 1998). We now define these changes, in order of their usual pattern of occurrence, as follows:
1. An increase in observing coyotes on streets and in yards at night;
2. An increase in coyotes approaching adults and/or taking pets at night;
3. Early morning and late afternoon daylight observance of coyotes on streets and in parks and yards;
4. Daylight observance of coyotes chasing or taking pets.
5. Coyotes attacking and taking pets on leash or in close proximity to their owners; coyotes chasing joggers, bicyclists, and other adults;
6. Coyotes seen in and around children’s play areas, school grounds, and parks in mid-day;
7. Coyotes acting aggressively toward adults during mid-day.
Carbyn (1989) analyzed 10 attacks on humans documented in Canadian and U.S. national parks from 1960 through 1988, concluding that they were predatory in nature; that is, the coyotes, having lost their fear of humans, regarded small children as prey. This opinion has been shared by others who have investigated such attacks (see Baker and Timm 1998). Carbyn noted that of the four most serious attacks, all were on children and three occurred during the season when pups were whelped or were being fed. He speculated that the coyotes’ boldness was related to food stress. He also noted the occurrence of additional aggressive responses to humans, at various seasons, that did not fit this pattern (e.g., chasing cars and biting at tires, slashing tents, and nipping at campers in sleeping bags), concluding that there may not have been a common basis for these additional aberrant behaviors. The motive for attacks by coyotes is not always hunger (Connolly et al. 1976) or protection of dens. Movement, particularly escape behavior, is a key stimulus for eliciting orientation and attack (Lehner 1976); children’s play and running behavior, particularly when running away from a coyote, may provide a strong stimulus for attack.”
[http://www.davenportranch.org/announcementspub/COYOTEATTACKS_ANINCREASINGSUBURBANPROBLEM.doc]
The only unsuccessful resolution has been to refer these attacks and killings to the State Department of Fish & Game. The DFG’s only recourse has been to provide a pamphlet to educate residents on living with coyotes. DFG has repeatedly stated that “unless someone is bitten, they will not take action”. Unfortunately, there is no way to control a coyote from just biting as opposed to the killing of a child as in Los Angeles County.
An agency within Orange County should be created to receive public reports of coyote activity, monitor the area of the increase of these reports and then hire an independent trapper to decrease the alpha male coyote population. The funding should be derived from the State of California, Department of Fish & Game. For a state department to simply utilize pamphlets to establish it’s existence is an absolute waste of tax payers’ dollars. The United States Department of Agriculture had informed RPMT that they were willing to trap with Federal trappers in our community since the DFG was not doing their job in the protection of the Rossmoor Community.
We hope to work and hear from you regarding this public safety matter which has now spread throughout Orange County. Please contact us at your convenience at (562) 253-2330 or email REBTRAVIS@AOL.COM.
ROSSMOOR PREDATOR MANAGEMENT TEAM
David, Rebecca Lara & 860 RPMT Members and Constituents
We, and several neighbors have seen coyotes in Buena Park on Azalea Drive and on Larkspur. These sightings have appeared at 6:20am and 8:15 pm. Please everyone be aware, alert and careful of your children and animals. These coyotes seem to be very BOLD.
I Moved to San Juan Capistrano 8 months ago and I’ve never seen a coyote until tonight. I took my shih-tzu out in the backyard to do his business. (It’s about an acre) and he was off his leash as usual and one side of our fence closest to us is iron bar fencing. I heard noises in the bushes and looked and I seen a coyote looking right at us. It was so scary. I didn’t know any better so I ran and picked my dog up and ran for the other side of the house. I was shaking. Now I know to make noise and wave your arms or carry a stick. This is very different from Central Ca. I was just informed after this that our neighbor doesn’t have a fence/partition in their yard to keep coyotes out. Great! But coyotes can jump fences too I hear.
Lara and the rest of RPMT are using pseudo-science to back a fear based reaction. If they killed every single coyote in SouthCali, within three years the population will rebound. They cite that a lack of wolves is why coyotes do well – the wolves aren’t here because we killed them all. So why will interfering more with nature fix the problem we created? It won’t.
Even after killing dozens of coyotes in the area, things haven’t changed. The only constant is the residents. That means, logically, that the problem is the residents, not the native fauna. Hence, change has to be made in how the residents live, not in killing coyotes.
The only science they have to back them up is a study conducted FOR A WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE. These are people who make their living on killing animals. The study is useless.
Do your own research and find the truth. The Laras and RPMT are using you.
Hi John Smith,
Please give our regards to your sister, Jane Doe.
Having 25 years in the legal field handling and documenting evidence, we have our referrals, statistics, photographs as evidence of coyote attacks/killings. We also have the four statements of female residents who thwart off their attack. We are not against coyotes but coyote prevention/deterrent information. We refer our readers to wildlife biologists at our website. We do not promote killing of anything which includes resident’s kids, pets or coyotes. Hopefully, the information we share will avoid all of this. We also use our own assets to promote deterrent coyote information. John, had you done your research you wouldn’t be trying to use the public with your false, unfounded, overly broad statements. Please contact us directly so that we may educate you on our information.
Current Statistics: 46 pet killings by coyotes in Rossmoor all in their backyards. We are extremely grateful a child playing in their own backyard has not been the victim of a coyote.
Rebecca, Founder of The Rossmoor Predator Management Team
I saw a coyote on San Rafael Drive on October 29th 2011 around 10 pm please watch your animals. Why has the city of Buena Park not notified us??????