Urban Coyotes Attack!

July 16, 2007 8:31 AM

When Wild Coyotes in San Francisco Attack (previously).
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot (27 comments total)

i see them all the time in LA and hope dearly that they're surviving on a robust diet of lap-dogs.
posted by klanawa at 8:43 AM on July 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

i see them all the time in LA and hope dearly that they're surviving on a robust diet of lap-dogs.

Let's introduce them to Washington.
posted by grobstein at 9:09 AM on July 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

From the article: And, since 2004, coyotes have lived in Washington, D.C.'s Rock Creek Park, only a couple miles from the White House, according to the National Park Service.
posted by saladin at 9:27 AM on July 16, 2007

they are everywhere. why is San Fran so special?
posted by caddis at 9:33 AM on July 16, 2007

There is a solution though
posted by caddis at 9:49 AM on July 16, 2007

Why is this news? Did you know that there are *gasp* racoons and possums running amok in our cities?
Stray domestic dogs are more dangerous than coyotes.
posted by 2sheets at 10:03 AM on July 16, 2007

I saw a coyote once in Los Angeles. He looked like a smallish, skittish dog. He steered clear of me and vice versa.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:21 AM on July 16, 2007

As someone from a city where urban coyotes are commonplace, and who recently visited San Francisco and spent time in Golden Gate Park, I'd be more worried about the wandering packs of hallucinating drug addicts to be found there.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 10:28 AM on July 16, 2007

im sorry that lady's dogs got bit - though i doubt the ridge backs (AKA Lion hounds) would be too hurt by a little coyote. I hope they fence off a reasonable area of the park till the litter is grown to prevent this sort of thing in the future.
posted by nihlton at 10:34 AM on July 16, 2007

Hey M.C. Lo-Carb!, how can you tell some random stranger is a drug addict? And how on Earth can you tell a random stranger is hallucinating?

Do you know a color-blind Trotskyite when you see one too?
posted by davy at 10:36 AM on July 16, 2007

Caddis, all of the solutions you suggested are inappropriate in a crowded
urban park. Almost any shotgun combined with a baitpoodle would
be much safer.
posted by the Real Dan at 10:41 AM on July 16, 2007 [2 favorites]

I haven't seen a coyote in my Louisville, KY neighborhood, but I've seen several possums, hawks, skinks and a couple owls, and my S.O. saw a raccoon last week in our front yard; while visiting my family in the Baltimore, MD area I've seen rabbits, buzzards and owls in Timonium, and hares near Johns Hopkins University's Homewood Campus. What do I win?

I'd have a hard time spotting a drug addict though, and if somebody hollered "I see an angel!" I'd think she was not hallucinating but lying.
posted by davy at 10:45 AM on July 16, 2007

Do you know a color-blind Trotskyite when you see one too?

Why, yes! I can!

But seriously - have you ever been to golden gate park? I didn't mean to offend you, and I'm actually quite, shall we say, sympathetic to recreational drug use. But there's some scary shit going on in parts of that park.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 10:46 AM on July 16, 2007

Why yes, in the many years I lived in or near San Francisco I visited Golden Gate Park many many times. I've even seen people in that park who were drug addicts, but I knew they were drug addicts because I knew them personally. Many of those known drug addicts I saw in that park looked just as "normal" as the tourists wandering around Chinatown or the boaters at the Marina.

These drug addicts who are so obvious and scary some random tourist can spot them, how many heads do they have? And do they wear "I'm currently hallucinating!" signs around their necks?
posted by davy at 11:01 AM on July 16, 2007

USDA officials have now shot the two coyotes dead.

On the topic of scary shit going on in urban parks, Golden Gate Park hasn't exactly cornered the market on that phenomenon.
posted by blucevalo at 11:51 AM on July 16, 2007

Wow, that's a sad little story. Those coyotes just got lost too deep in human habitat to be recoverable. I was wishing they could have relocated them, but since they seem to have become aggressive for lack of fear and not defensively, I understand. Well, an hour to the south, we have plenty of coyotes, skunks, raccoons, sea lions, deer and a few mountain lions to keep us busy.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:55 PM on July 16, 2007

Well that sucks. Yay civilization!
posted by 2sheets at 1:30 PM on July 16, 2007

I've known a few people who've taken 'shrooms in Golden Gate Park. Apparently they're best enjoyed when one is out in "Nature," and where else would people go in San Francisco?

Hallucinogens aren't addictive, though, so I think you've seen a grand total of zero hallucinating drug addicts, unless they were taking more than one substance.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 1:36 PM on July 16, 2007

Goodness, Davy - I didn't mean to upset you. Because my wife and I travel frequently with our two dogs, we've spent lots of time in various city parks, and occasionally acknowledge the differences between them.

We spent time there during visits in 2003 and again last month. Both times, we entered on foot at Haight and Stanyan, and at least that first 1/3 of the park, and up to the tea garden, appeared surprisingly trashy and rundown, and were filled with people talking crazily to themselves, openly getting high, selling drugs, drinking, intimidating the obvious tourists and so forth. It was like a little skid row in a beautiful park setting.

Again, it's not that I have a problem with any of these activities or anything against troubled people. Its just that it surprised me that it was so obvious. And it did occur to me that at least this end of the park would be pretty scary for your average suburban family.

I've gingerly walked in many "needle parks," including plenty of them in my own city. But GG, in particular, has stood out in my mind as one of the most unexpectedly sketchy and menacing.

I still think it's beautiful and and love love love SF. And I respect that as a resident, you'll have a much more realistic expectations of your park system. I'm getting little more than a 'walk-around-and-let-the-dogs-play-fetch-for-a-while' impression.

And yes, Blucevalo, I know there are many parks that are far worse. NY's Bryant Park in the 90s comes to mind.

As a dog lover who lives in a city with a bad case of urban sprawl, I guess perhaps I'm a little sympathetic to urban coyotes, when humans, frankly, can be much, much more disgusting and dangerous.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 1:39 PM on July 16, 2007

Maybe he was hallucinating the hallucinating drug addicts!
posted by misha at 1:39 PM on July 16, 2007 [2 favorites]

Yes, Thoughtcrime, 'shrooms are best enjoyed in nature. And methamphetamines are known to produce hallucinations and delusions.

And yes, misha, it is possible that I hallucinated the hallucinating.

I'm sorry for the massive derail in a post about urban encroachment.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 1:53 PM on July 16, 2007

Experts had theorized Sunday that the pair may have been acting so aggressive because they had a litter of pups. But today, Orr said no pups had been found and the female coyote was not lactating.

so they shot them dead, then squeezed the little coyote nipples to see if there was milk. so sexy.
posted by snofoam at 4:08 PM on July 16, 2007

im sorry that lady's dogs got bit - though i doubt the ridge backs (AKA Lion hounds) would be too hurt by a little coyote.

Actually, coyotes can take down any size dog, up to and including Great Danes. They can also take down deer.

They've attacked kids on their way to school in our city a few times in the past few years, and not out in the suburbs either.
posted by watsondog at 4:46 PM on July 16, 2007

I like the drawing of the suspected coyotes.
posted by mulligan at 7:08 PM on July 16, 2007

Also, someone suggested that it is even funnier if you replace all mentions of coyote in that article with "commie".
for instance:
Where we live, commies are all over, but I never expected to see them in San Francisco.
posted by mulligan at 7:11 PM on July 16, 2007

Caddis, all of the solutions you suggested are inappropriate in a crowded urban park. Almost any shotgun combined with a baitpoodle would be much safer.
posted by the Real Dan at 1:41 PM on July 16 [2 favorites +] [!]

Whatever. I'll stick with a real rifle which is an assured kill if your aim is true, rather than a slug from a shotgun which is far less accurate. Know your field of fire.
posted by caddis at 7:53 PM on July 16, 2007

Wile E.

Coyote, that is. supergenius.

geez, nobody's made a Warner Brothers cartoon reference yet?
posted by ilsa at 9:15 PM on July 16, 2007