Coyote warning system a pet project
Vancouver cat lover urging others to join a text network to save animals
Coyotes snatching cats isn’t new, but a Vancouver cat-lover is hoping to pilot an attempt at thwarting the critters from grabbing some cat chow.
Judith Webster hopes to set up a group text network to warn neighbours when coyotes are out and about.
“Please don’t let your cats out early in the morning or in the evening,” Webster urged.
“Supervise them and even in the daytime coyotes have been seen stalking backyards.”
In the East Van area, a cat-carrying coyote was recently spotted inside a loose boundary between Venables and Broadway, and Victoria and Renfrew.
Webster believes there are two coyote packs within the area.
“We found a dead cat at 5th and Lake, and a month ago a coyote was seen carrying a cat across Nanaimo,” she said.
Webster, a volunteer with Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association, has cats inside an enclosure in her backyard. Most of her cats are semi-feral VOKRA rescues.
She had a cat killed by a coyote in 2005, which prompted her interest in the canids.
But there is something else that doesn’t like cats, something other than coyotes.
She put up posters and has 50 more ready to go that read: “Do you have pets or have compassion for their safety? ...
“Please consider joining a group text message to instantly alert others of coyotes in the neighbourhood.”
“Someone within 24 hours tore down virtually every poster we put up,” Webster said. “We had the same problem with lost-cat posters we put up a couple of years ago in the same area, all torn down immediately.
“Someone in that area hates cats. Maybe they just don’t like posters on poles, but they haven’t ripped down other posters on poles.”
The biggest benefit of setting up a group text is the immediacy of a warning, she said. By the time officialdom gets around to warning the public of the presence of coyotes, Webster said, often a month has gone by since the sighting.
“This plan is instantaneous.”