New Castle Officials Wrestle With Coyote Regulations
New Castle officials continued to grapple last week with what to include in a coyote management policy that would be a satisfactory solution when residents have a close encounter with the animal.
Members of the Coyote Management Task Force, one of two groups appointed last year to study the issue, met with the town board and Police Chief Charles Ferry on March 17. The discussion focused mainly on the police department’s role in handling coyotes.
Ferry said he had also spoken with members of the Coyote Awareness and Safety Advisory Committee. The two committees have been at odds over what steps should be taken to protect residents, their pets and children as coyote sightings have become common in New Castle over the past couple of years.
Ferry said how police deal with coyotes has depended on whether an animal is posing a threat to people or other animals. If a homeowner, for example, calls police for help regarding a coyote on their property and the animal is not posing a threat, the police will refer the resident to a trapper. However, should there be a report of a menacing coyote or one that appears to be rabid, a responding officer would come out and shoot the animal to stop the threat, he said.
Ferry said over the past five years, 90 of the town’s 1,300 animal complaints reported to the police department concerned coyotes. The vast majority of those cases were resolved without police action. In six of the coyote incidents, a trapper needed to be called in.
During the same timeframe, there were more than 200 cases of police needing to shoot an animal, including injured deer and sick raccoons, but there was only one incident of an officer shooting a coyote after the animal was struck by a car, the chief said.
Town officials must weigh whether a part-time opening in the department should be split between an animal control officer and a parking enforcement officer. It would be impractical to have every officer participate in animal control responsibilities, Ferry said.
Eileen Gallagher, a Coyote Management Task Force member, said one of her concerns is that coyotes could pose a threat at the town’s Gedney Park, a popular location for families and dog walkers.
Supervisor Robert Greenstein said he didn’t want homeowners and their families to feel threatened by coyotes. Residents should feel that they and their pets “are safe in their own yards,” he said, while calling coyote management a “quality of life” issue.
Greenstein said he was receptive to having the officer that fills the open police position take on some animal control responsibilities.
“I think the money would be well spent,” he said.
Members of the Coyote Awareness and Safety Advisory Committee were unable to attend last week’s meeting, but would meet with the town board on Apr. 7, said Councilman Jason Chapin.
Ferry requested that the town board provide him with guidance following Apr. 7 on how the police should handle coyote encounters.
Councilwoman Lisa Katz said she wanted public comments on coyote management from residents besides the two committees studying the issue.
The task force and the committee have strongly disagreed on several key matters, including when to kill a coyote. The task force favors a lethal choice as a last resort when people or animals are threatened while the committee is opposed to that action except in rare circumstances.
This story has been updated and correted since the original post regarding the number of overall animal complaints the New Castle Police Department has received during the past five years and how many of those complaints involved coyotes.
