In Cape May, New Jersey, there’s been a population explosion of Coyotes recently, and the public is demanding that something be done about them because too many pets have been taken. No one’s sure where they came from. To my knowledge there have been no photos of them, not even blurry ones. Incidents are brief, and usually consist of a poodle owner turning his back for a moment, hearing a squeal, and turning back to see something running into the woods and his cutey schnookums missing and presumed tasty. There is an upswing in missing pets, but the reasons behind it could be argued ad nauseam if one so chose. My point is this- The Department of Fish and Wildlife is taking the matter seriously, warning locals to mind their pets and small children, trying to trap them and get estimates of their population size and so on. To my knowledge they haven’t caught any, but they are developing a plan, and on less information, and with less deadly outcomes should they not, than this Michigan incident.

If I were a real honest to Pete MI DNR biologist stuck in a case of State Denial like this right now, I’d probably be wondering where my soul was and whether they’d given me a receipt.

Animals do stuff, and any member of the public wanting Government to do something about it had better be prepared to pay for lots of dogs, lots of hunters, and like the man says, a fence.

Geez, I wonder, must be a conspiracy! Blame the Canadians!

Government (outside of Defense) has too little money, to do too many things, and something better REALLY be a problem before it gets funding. And the materials you have to provide to the public about dangerous animals cost, well, money.

I think another problem is the mentality prevailing among much of the public that these are the Government’s animals and the Government is responsible for what they do. Which is of course ridiculous. But bureaucrats will overreact to it.

All that having been said: denial is a very very bad idea in government, as many within it could probably tell you right now.

You may remember the story, a few years back of a coyote found living in Manhattan (Central park.) Prior to that, one had been found as roadkill on the Major Degan expressway. Before both of these incidents I had spotted one in the Bronx (Riverdale.) This past summer several people reported seeing deer in the Bronx. My point is that animals are always expanding their range if they can. I just can’t understand why biologists find this so hard to believe. Are they waiting for a mountain lion to walk down Fifth Avenue?