La Grrrdia patrol
Activists up all night protecting airport coyotes
A crew of animal-loving activists is answering the call of the wild — spending sleepless nights in the woods next to La Guardia Airport to protect three orphaned coyotes that are being targeted as a menace.
The coyote companions have been shooing and chasing the pups since Thursday, to keep them away from traps and cameras that belong to US Department of Agriculture agents. The Port Authority, which operates the airport, called in the agents to exterminate the coyotes, officials said.
“Public safety comes first. There have been multiple reports this week of coyotes threatening air- port and Port Authority workers at an airport parking lot,” said PA rep Cheryl Albiez.
Parking-lot attendant Emmanuel Effah, 60, said he was headed to his booth about two weeks ago when one of the coyotes started to follow him at the lot on Hazen Street at the edge of the airport.
“It chased me all the way to the corner over there,” said Effah. “So the guy in the booth saw I was in trouble. He came out and the animal jumped over the hill.”
The USDA in the fall said it killed nine coyotes living near the airport. That spurred activists to try to protect the animals.
“We are engaging in a lot of little battles to keep them alive,” said Long Island barber Frank Vincenti, who has turned the plight of the coyotes into his pet project. “These coyotes are smart. They know the cars of the USDA agents. But we are trying to keep them from going out into the open where [agents] can track them,” he said.
Rose Ortega, a La Guardia shuttlebus driver who has been helping protect the coyotes, said the officials who built the lot should be responsible for relocating the animals.
“They knew these animals were here when they turned this mound into a parking lot,” said Ortega. “The animals shouldn’t have to suffer. Why can’t they relocate them?”
The animals are just looking for food, said Ortega, who added that she has been picking up trash that the employees leave in the lot and telling them not to feed the pups.
She said that the animals would never threaten anyone.
“When I whistle to them, they come to the fence,” said Ortega. “All they want to do is play and eat.”
The activists are hoping to foil USDA agents until the animals can be transported to a sanctuary.
So far, a mother and father coyote and several of their pups have been killed, Vincenti said. There are only three pups still alive — whom Vincenti has named Dumbo, Tony, and Floppy.
PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien issued a statement calling the practice of killing coyotes “ineffective” and “cruel.”
“Nonlethal deterrents will humanely encourage coyotes to move on naturally, and it’s the only long-term effective approach,” the statement said.