Official: Coyote eradication unlikely

The city's parks and recreation director has requested the City Council meet in January to discuss residents' concerns with an increasingly bold coyote population, but he said a large-scale removal or eradication effort is not likely to gain approval.

"My guess is that they'll want to go with education," said Bill Mulcahy, parks and recreation manager. "Relocation appears to be a non-workable solution to the problem, and there's not a lot of interest in killing the coyotes."

Complaints by residents about coyotes have increased recently, but that was not a sign that the local coyote population was on the rise, said Curtis Herbert, Arizona Game and Fish wildlife manager for the Lake Havasu region. "While the city population might not be up, coyotes in particular areas are becoming more of a problem," he said.

Herbert said he was not opposed to a program to target and remove a particularly troublesome population of coyotes. But an effort to rid the city of coyotes would fail, he said.

"There will always be coyotes. That will never change," he said. "So eradication's just not an answer. That's been proven time and time again." FOR FULL STORY, SEE TODAY'S NEWS-HERALD.