Woman illegally caging birds that killed two baby finches

DEAR JOAN >> A lady I am acquainted with captured two scrub jays that killed a couple of her baby finches. She now has them in an old chicken coop, calling it bird jail, and when I saw them, they seemed very much in distress. They were flying back and forth constantly. She said she has had them for about a month.

I am very worried about them. Is it legal to capture and keep birds like that? — Sean, Bay Area DEAR SEAN >> It most certainly is not legal. Almost every bird is protected under the International Migratory Bird Treaty and state laws. No wild animal can be trapped and kept as a pet — or as some sort of bizarre, misguided punishment.

It’s sad that the finches were killed, but the scrub jays were only doing what is natural for them, and that’s to find prey and eat it. She seems to think the jays did it out of meanness or something that needs to be punished.

She needs to pardon and parole those birds at once, or you need to report her to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

DEAR JOAN >> In the past four or five days, I’ve buried eight piles of coyote poop, and I’ve got at least three more to go. There’s a group of at least five coyotes that frequent the property here, probably because we don’t have dogs but do have an abundance of gophers.

Your readers should be warned about the hazard of coyote poop. It may contain parasites dangerous to both dogs and humans. I think once the rains come, the soil bacteria will take care of the parasites in the buried poop, but whether they will or not, at least it will DEAR MARK >> All animal excrement should be handled — I probably could have chosen a better word for that — with caution. I don’t believe coyote scat is any more or less dangerous than dog scat. Both can contain Echinococcus granulosus, a small tapeworm that can be found in several animals.

Carnivores, such as the coyote, dog or wolf, can harbor the parasite in their intestines, spreading it through their excrement to other animals and humans.

The parasite requires two hosts — the definitive (dogs and coyotes, for example) and the intermediate host, most often sheep. In the definitive host, the parasite lives in the intestines and produces eggs, which are excreted and picked up by the intermediate host, which then passes on the tapeworm when the meat is eaten.

Humans also can serve as intermediate hosts and can develop an infection that leads to cystic echinococcosis, also called hydatid disease.

Because of their wild diet, coyotes are more likely than dogs to have the tapeworm, but not all coyotes have it.

A dog can get the parasite if it eats or rolls in infected scat, and can pass it on to you if you aren’t careful with handling the dog’s poop.

You also should have your dog’s stool checked once or twice a year.

All animal excrement should be disposed of, and you should avoid touching it with your bare hands. The eggs in the scat can live for at least a year, so burying it probably won’t help.

Thanks for the alert and the reminder to be careful, even in our own backyard.