Advocacy groups urge Cambridge to reconsider coyote relocation

CAMBRIDGE — Two animal advocacy organizations — Coyote Watch Canada and The Fur-Bearers — are urging the city to call off its plan to relocate a family of coyotes with a den in Churchill Park.

A letter from the groups was emailed to members of city and regional council on Wednesday, three days after an off-leash dog was attacked by a coyote in the park and needed 18 stitches to close its wounds.

“We ask that you do not move forward with attempts to trap and relocate or kill the coyotes in Churchill Park and allow our representatives to work with your staff to determine how co-existence can be possible for your city,” read a joint letter from Coyote Watch Canada executive director Lesley Sampson and Fur-Bearers spokesperson Michael Howie.

Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig, after reading the letter, was not inclined to halt relocation plans for the coyotes, which the city made public Tuesday after consulting the Ministry of Natural Resources.

“Not at all,” Craig said. “We’re going to follow through on this. Again, I have to come back to community safety. In an urban area, in a park situation, surrounded literally by hundreds and hundreds of homes, with kids and people in the park area, ball diamonds and everything else, community safety is uppermost.”

On Wednesday afternoon, a blue city barricade blocked off a walking bridge over Moffat Creek in Churchill Park. On the other side of the bridge were basketball nets and a ridge — where the dog attack occurred as a city woman says she walked her Jack Russell terrier off leash around 3:30 Sunday afternoon. The woman spotted two coyote pups after she pulled her injured dog away from the coyote.

Yellow signs on hydro poles, at the bridge and at the basketball court, warned of coyotes in the area and potential danger to pets.

The city, which had been seeking a qualified professional to relocate the coyotes, had no official update as of Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s my understanding the ministry will be bringing in somebody,” Craig said of the impending coyote relocation. “We may end up paying the bill, but the ministry is the overseer of this.”

Sampson suggested it makes little sense for the city to trap and relocate this coyote family. “Others will go and establish themselves in this green space. It’s better to be prepared and educate the public that will be visiting that area.”