Feds Kill Third Coyote in Lake Forest Park Neighborhood

A Department of Agriculture biologist killed a third coyote, a large dominant adult, in a Lake Forest Park neighborhood early Thursday morning to stem what he and the USDA’s Wildlife Services agency believed to be a dangerous situation.

“The heavy lifting is done in that neighborhood,” said Matt Stevens, a USDA wildlife biologist who used a domestic kitten call to attract the coyote. “He was interested in killing a cat because that’s what he’s been killing.”

Stevens also appeared before an overflow crowd of about 75 people at the Lake Forest Park City Council meeting Thursday night, to explain what had happened over the past week and a half regarding the coyotes.

A family of coyotes killed a ram named Fat Boy on Eric and Nancy Gorbman’s property on 28thAve. N.E. between Sunday night July 17 and the morning Monday July 18.

They called the police who in turn referred them to the state Fish and Wildilfe Department who then called the Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services division and Stevens.

The evidence that it was a coyote that killed the sheep included the following signs, according to Stevens: 

•The coyotes had attacked the throat of the sheep, and its throat had been torn out as it bled to death, a tell-tale sign.

•Coyotes eat an animal from its rear end and pull the gut cavity out, which happened in this case.

Stevens advised the Gorbmans to leave the sheep carcass out while the coyotes were still around so they would come back to it. That’s how Stevens found and shot the first coyote on Monday, July 18. All that’s left of the sheep carcass now is bones and hide.

Stevens killed a second coyote on the morning of Sunday, July 24.

All three of the coyotes that had lost fear of humans are now dead, Stevens said, leaving at least three young pups in the territory which he hopes now will stay wild.

“I put so much pressure on those pups that they don’t want anything to do with people,” he said.

Stevens performed a necropsy on the last coyote he killed and found nothing but dog food in its stomach.

This past Tuesday evening when he was in the neighborhood he noticed a large pile of dog food, apparently left out intentionally by someone, and another pile on Wednesday morning.

Leaving food for coyotes is considered a major part of the problem and one reason why coyotes become dangerous to humans and pets.

“It will be a continual problem if there’s a food source available,” Stevens said. “That’s a lose-lose situation, nobody wins. The coyotes can find their own food."

Coyotes are common in Kirkland as well, particularly in heavily wooded neighborhoods such as Finn Hill.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife offers plenty of advice on preventing problems with suburban coyotes on its web pages here.

Tips include:

• Feed dogs and cats indoors. If you must feed your pets outside, do so in the morning or at midday, and pick up food, water bowls, leftovers, and spilled food well before dark every day. 

• Never feed coyotes. Coyotes that are fed by people often lose their fear of humans and develop a territorial attitude that may lead to aggressive behavior. 

• Don’t give coyotes access to garbage. Keep garbage can lids on tight by securing them with rope, bungee cords or weights. Better yet, buy quality garbage cans with clamps or other mechanisms that hold lids on.

• Don’t feed feral cats (domestic cats gone wild). Coyotes prey on these cats as well as any feed you leave out for the feral cats.