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A letter to City Hall

August 25, 2005 - 1:34 pm 5 Comments

We’ve had coyotes behind our house every night for a couple of weeks. I called City Hall and they were blissfully unaware of there being dangerous consequences to this – just mentioned that some neighborhood cats had gone missing, but they couldn’t find any coyotes. Hell, I’ve got a coyote call and an AR-15. I’ll go out and help ’em find the damn things.

Hi there,

I called a little while ago and spoke to the guy who is in charge of animal control for the city about the coyotes we’ve been hearing at night. He said that Travis County hadn’t had a rabies case in a couple of years – unfortunately this isn’t the case.

http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/zoonosis/diseases/rabies/maps/county.jpg

As you can see, Travis County has had 20+ cases of rabies in 2005 alone.

I’ve got a call into the Travis County Sheriff’s department animal control as suggested, but wanted to let you know that the problem might be more severe than you think!

Also, title 25, section 169.34 is the rabies quarantine law I was speaking of. It is indeed still in effect.

With there being no leash law in Westlake Hills, we see dogs and cats roaming around the neighborhood all the time. It’s concerning to me that one of these animals might get into a scrap with a coyote, become infected with rabies, and then continue to roam free. My dogs and kids play in our yard, and several times we have had other dogs come onto our property – at times, we’ve been attacked by neighbor dogs while we’ve been in our own yard. Perhaps it’s time to consider a leash law?

Thanks for your consideration

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5 Responses to “A letter to City Hall”

  1. Ardilla Chiflada Says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 2:15 pm

    And how do you know that they’re coyotes? And not gray foxes, much more common by far.

  2. addlepated Says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 2:19 pm

    Because I’m hearing them, not seeing them. And I’ve heard plenty of coyotes before. 🙂

  3. Keath Milligan Says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 2:42 pm

    Actually, coyotes are more common around here. I have several pictures of them in my driveway and back yard when they were a problem in the NW Hills area. It got pretty bad around here – we were routine seeing packs of 3 and 4 roaming through streets and yards and you could hear them baying and fighting with domestic dogs every night.

    Brewster McCracken did hold a community meeting regarding the problem, resulting in the city setting out traps and warning folks to keep pets inside. After a couple of months, coyote sitings tapered off, but recently I’ve started seeing them again. The thick deer population just makes it too easy for them to thrive, I suppose.

    Here are a couple of pics:

    http://keathmilligan.net/photos/austin/wildlife/coyote3.JPG
    http://keathmilligan.net/photos/austin/wildlife/coyote2.jpg

  4. addlepated Says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 2:50 pm

    Woah, Keath – those pictures were taken in your yard, in the daytime? Bad juju. But yeah – I’m sure the rampant deer population helps the coyotes thrive. This is out of my front door:

    http://gallery.addlepated.net/Critters/deer

    Back when we used to live off Spicewood Springs/183, we’d hear coyotes occasionally, but never as close as I’ve been hearing them in Westlake. My friend in Steiner Ranch says they have them there, too, but they’re in a more rural setting.

  5. Ardilla Chiflada Says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 3:00 pm

    Then you know your coyotes! Here in town we see a gray fox or two almost every evening and some mornings as well. I’ve spent time living in coyote country myself and just plain don’t worry about them, not keeping sheep or chickens, and not wanting traps, marksmen, or coyote-getters anywhere around near children and pets. Just sayin’