Coyote suspected in death of local family's housecat

Punt the cat was a beloved pet of the Yaseen Family of Beverly. His life was cut short by a coyote, the family said, after spending the night outdoors on Oct. 20.

by Caroline Connors

A coyote was the culprit in a fatal attack on a housecat last week, according to the pet’s owners.

The Yaseen Family, of Beverly, discovered the mauled remains of their 10-year-old cat, Punt, in their backyard on Oct. 21. After talking with neighbors who have seen coyotes in the area and heard that the carcasses of other small animals have been found, the family believes the cat was attacked by a coyote.

“Coyotes don’t belong in our neighborhood,” said Larry Yaseen, a Beverly resident since 1976. “It’s upsetting the balance of things.”

The Yaseens have another cat but no longer allow it to roam in their large, unfenced backyard for fear that it will face a similar fate as Punt.

“Both our cats went outside but stayed in the yard,” Yaseen said. “We didn’t know that Punt was out—he probably slipped out the door when our daughter came home—so we went to bed thinking that everyone was in for the night.”

The family realized the cat was missing the next morning when Punt failed to show up for breakfast.

“Punt never missed a meal; he loved to eat,” Yaseen said.

Later in the day, after Yaseen’s wife searched the neighborhood by car, the couple’s daughter found Punt’s body behind the patio in their backyard.

“She’s still upset,” Yaseen said.

The family reported the attack to the office of 19th Ward Ald. Ginger Rugai, Yaseen said. It is the second report of a fatal attack on a domestic cat, said 19th Ward employee Samantha Fields.

“We haven’t heard any stories about dogs, and we haven’t heard any cases of the coyotes harming humans; but it is alarming,” Fields said.

According to Fields, the ward office has received calls about coyote sightings in the vicinity of 98th Street and Longwood Drive and 98th Street and Charles Avenue. In addition, people have reported sightings of a fox near Morgan Park Academy and on Longwood Drive between 108th and 110th streets.

Fields said the ward office has been in contact with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), the agency that oversees wildlife management throughout the state, to gain information on the urban coyote population.

Coyotes, along with other furbearer mammals such as raccoons, opossums and skunks, are legally protected by the Illinois Wildlife Code, which requires a permit to remove a nuisance animal from its environment.

While the knee-jerk reaction to a fatal attack on a house pet is eradication of the coyote population, it is neither a realistic nor permanent solution, Fields said.

According to a November 2008 report prepared by the IDNR Division of Wildlife Resources, the number of nuisance coyotes removed annually from the Chicago metropolitan area increased from typically less than 20 coyotes in the early 1990s to more than 350 coyotes each year during the late 1990s.

The indication is that coyotes in the Chicago area have increased substantially over a short period of time and that, if removed, other coyotes will quickly replace them.

Available food is a key factor in the size of the urban coyote population, according to Dr. Stan Gehrt, a wildlife biologist and professor at Ohio State University. In a study he conducted on the Cook County coyote population in the early part of this decade, Gehrt said that while coyotes are predators, they are also opportunistic and will shift their diets to take advantage of the most available prey.

Small rodents, fruit, deer and rabbits were the most common food found in the droppings of coyotes in the study; domestic cats and human- related food, such as garbage and pet food, were found in approximately one percent of the droppings.

In addition, coyotes are known to prey on goose eggs and deer fawn. Both the IDNR and Gehrt’s study report that a positive trickle-down effect of urban coyotes is a reduction in the over-populations of urban deer, Canada geese and small rodents such as vole, mice and rats.

Despite the shock for humans at seeing a wild animal in the city, coyotes are a permanent fixture in Illinois’ rural, suburban and urban areas; modifying human behavior is easier than removing the coyote population, according to the University of Illinois Extension.

The agency recommends that humans reduce the risk of conflicts by following several precautions:

• Do not feed coyotes; they are not pets. The use of bird feeders can serve as an unintentional invitation to coyotes because of their attraction to small rodents such as squirrels.
• Do not let pets run loose, especially domestic cats. Fencing, particularly if it is at least four feet high, may keep coyotes out of a yard.
• Do not run from a coyote. Yell or throw something in its direction if a coyote is encountered.
• Report fearless, aggressive animals as soon as possible. Most coyotes are looking for food, but animals that fail to exhibit fear of humans should be reported.

According to the coyote study conducted by Gehrt, coyote attacks on people are isolated and rare. No documented case of a coyote biting a human has been reported in Cook County; in contrast, 2,000 to 3,000 domestic dog bites are recorded annually in the same area.

The ward office has a list of licensed nuisance animal removers. Both the IDNR and Chicago Animal Care and Control are contacted when sightings of coyotes and foxes are reported, Fields said.

This is part of the October 28, 2009 online edition of The Beverly Review.

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