angusthermopylae (42.08)

Absolutely Nothing Financial in This Post

June 30, 2010 – Comments (4) | RELATED TICKERS: COY , HLTOY.PK

According to an article today, two children have been recently attacked by coyotes in a suburb of New York City. The girls, aged 3 and 6, are supposed to be doing well, but the attack has the locals on edge--they are worried that the animals (at least the ones involved in the attack) have lost their fear of humans and may be more dangerous than most.

Looking around a little, I found this article from February--apparently having coyotes in the state of New York state is nothing new, but having them in the city itself is new and, for some, worrisome.  After all, coyotes have a bad reputation, and those city folk aren't used to dealing with evil animals that aren't afraid of humans.

However, I live in Southern Ohio, and have a different perspective.  I remember growing up and hearing about the arrival of large numbers of coyotes in the state during the 80s and 90s.  There was some worry about the animals back then, and a few pets have been eaten, but I can't recall any people being hurt--I'm sure it's happened, but it is either so rare or so normal that no one in the state (or the rest of Appalachia that I'm familiar with--Kentucky and West Virginia) takes note on a large scale.

In fact, I live on a small farm.  We have about 16 cats, 5 dogs, 30 goats, and 22 chickens ("about" is all you can do with cats--they tend to wander in and out according to their own schedules.  Ever hear the term "herding cats"?  There's a reason for that!)  We also have an old horse.

We live next to a portion of Wayne National Forest.  Raccoons, possum, bears, bobcats, and even coyotes are in abundance.  The raccoons come to the house to eat the cat and dog food in winter (one winter, they even slept in the house--uninvited, but what the heck!).  The coyotes, in particular, wander on an off our property in what we affectionately call "the swamp"--low lying corn fields that spend the spring and fall underwater.

Almost every night, we can hear about 6-7 coyotes howling and yipping.  With the hills behind us, they echo pretty loudly.  Because they a) live at least partially in our front yard, and b) are about to jump our livestock fence quite easily, we decided to do something about the coyotes...

...we got mules and llamas.

Yep, believe it or not, mules and llamas both are very (even viciously) capable guard animals.  Mules will stomp a dog to death, chasing it down, running it over, then finishing the job...not a pretty picture.  Weighing in at about 800 lbs apiece, they can do a helluva job on any size dog...and those hooves will leave a very lasting impression.

Llamas, on the other hand, only weigh about 400 lbs--but have you ever seen llama feet?  They have two toes like their camel cousins [insert "hur-hur" joke here], but each toe bears a 1-inch wide, 1-1/2 inch long talon.  They also bite--though we had to have their fighting teeth (1-1/2 long fangs) removed since they kept trying to castrate each other...ahem...manually and without anesthetic.

Llamas also bond very closely with the herd in which they are placed.  Ours have decided that the goats are "theirs", and, because llamas are territorial, they patrol the hills and guard the goats better than any trained dogs.

Between the dogs we have (to keep out bad people), and the mules and llamas, we all sleep pretty well at night, safe and secure, and have never had any problems from this "worrisome invader" from the west.

So, you see, what is surprising and worrisome to the denizens of the Big Apple is actually old hat to those of us in flyover country.  We've been dealing with this stuff for a lot longer than most city folks have, and life pretty much goes on. Sure, it's not ideal, but it's one of the realities that we understand--the world changes, and you have to get by.

Our solution probably won't work for those New Yorkers--the environment is different, the culture is different; while I am willing to load up the triler and haul off a couple of tons of llama and mule crap to the compost heap, most New Yorkers probably wouldn't.

So they'll have to come up with something that works for them--keeping kids indoors, organizing coyote-hunts, or maybe PETA will get involved and everyone will adopt-a-coyote-day until it's not an issue.

Meanwhile, I'll sleep well while the beast howls at the door.

Like I said, nothing financial in this post...

...right?