Editor:
I was enjoying my early morning walk in the woods with my dog, the sun filtering down through the trees. But my day was spoiled when I found a beautiful, healthy looking coyote pup lying dead beside the path - maybe the same pup my dog and I had met when we walked up the hill from our house a couple of days earlier.
I examined it but could find no bullet wound; the "coyote dad" had recently been shot. It seems people are fed up with coyotes roaming their neighbourhoods.
It's possible someone poisoned this pup. Anyone contemplating such an inhumane act (it is a slow and painful death), should consider that this would endanger eagles, ravens and other animals that might feed on the carcass. Or the bait could inadvertently be eaten by a dog or cat.
I've lived in Sechelt for 10 years. Every day I walk with my dog in the woods close to home or in outlying areas. We've run into elk, bears -with and without cubs - deer and coyote, without a problem.
When it comes to conflict with wildlife, people are the problem - destroying wildlife habitat with logging clear-cuts and big subdivisions and enticing wildlife into neighbourhoods by sloppy habits: not disposing of garbage properly, not cleaning barbecues, leaving fruit to rot on trees, leaving pet food outside, filling birdfeeders all summer, which attracts not only bears, but coyotes that will also eat birdseed.
It's a privilege to live here, close to nature. If we choose to live on the Sunshine Coast we should learn to co-exist with wildlife, to understand and respect it.
Cecilia Ohm-Eriksen
Sechelt
