BANGOR, Maine — Some city residents and officials are telling Bangor-area pet owners to keep a tighter leash on their small dogs and cats.
Residents in the Howard Street area of Bangor, in particular, and outlying areas have reported lost or missing pets, and many of them think coyotes or foxes are to blame.
Lori O’Neill, who lives on Howard Street with husband, Everett, son, Brady, and daughter, Brooke, has lost five cats over the past year.
“One was hit by a car, and we figured maybe the first one was just one that ended up going somewhere else and getting taken in by someone, but after we lost two cats within a month, that’s when we started thinking there was something different going on,” said O’Neill, the secretary to the city manager in Bangor.
While many blame foxes, O’Neill is convinced that coyotes are the culprits in her cats’ disappearances.
“We can hear them howling at night. I know they’re out there,” said Brady. “I go outside to get the cats in with a flashlight to try to find them and scare the coyotes away.
“You see the eyes shining in the dark, and you can hear them howling and making a weird laughing noise at night,” he said.
While Patt Pinkham, Bangor’s animal control officer for 29 years, doesn’t disagree that coyotes are indeed living in the greater Bangor area and Penobscot County in general, she places the blame on another creature.
“Actually, I don’t think it’s coyotes as much as I think it’s foxes,” said Pinkham, who lives in Stetson. “I have yet to see a coyote or even coyote tracks in this area.
“I have seen many more foxes in this area, in fact, and they’re healthy looking, which tells me they’re eating,” she said.
Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Game Warden Jim Fahey said the area near O’Neill’s home is ideal for coyotes.
“There’s a lot of good habitat in that area between the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center and Howard Street, so it’s certainly possible that coyotes could be behind some of those disappearances,” he said. “That area has had several reports of coyotes for a couple of years, but they are hard to substantiate because they disappear quickly.”
Fahey says foxes are much more visible than they used to be.
“I’m convinced foxes have adapted better to us than we’ve adapted to them,” he said, adding that the idea that every fox is rabid is an overgeneralization. “They’re very adaptable and are changing tactics and using what’s available as a food source, even if it’s dog or cat food left on someone’s steps.”
Pinkham said she has no scientific data to determine whether the local populations of wild animals is increasing or not, but she does have a theory.
“The numbers may be slightly up, but I think we’re just seeing them more because we’re encroaching on their territory more and more with development,” Pinkham said. “Every time we put another building up, that’s part of their habitat and they’ve got no place to go.
Pinkham added that this is typically the time of the year that foxes and coyotes train their babies to hunt.
“It’s not just foxes and coyotes,” she said. “There are ermine as well, and raccoons are also dangerous, especially if cornered.”
Pinkham also made the point that some dogs, especially huskies, are routinely mistaken for wolves and coyotes.
“I wouldn’t say the coyote population is any greater or lesser than it has been in the Bangor area,” Fahey said. “As far as foxes, to me, the increase in the frequency of mange in the fox population tells me their numbers may be increasing.”
Orono police Sgt. Scott Scripture said he hasn’t noticed reports of missing pets on the rise in Orono.
“We’ve had cases of foxes taking smaller pets in the past, but as far as I know, we haven’t had any reports more than usual over the last couple of weeks,” he said. “Coyotes are around, but we really don’t see many of them.”
Scripture agreed that local wild animals are losing more and more of their natural habitat to development.
“I think Patt’s assessment is fair,” he said. “And I think, given my experience, that pet disappearances would have more to do with foxes than coyotes around here.”
Pinkham doesn’t get involved with wild animal incidents. She refers those calls to police or game wardens from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
“They have damage control coordinators who live-trap wild animals and release them back into the wild,” Pinkham said. “It’s basically a pest control service people pay a fee for.”
Scripture said while many missing pets are simply victims of automobiles, some are simply taken in by kind-hearted residents and dropped off at animal orphanages or humane societies if they aren’t wearing collars or identification.
Everyone asked about possible incidents of predatory attacks on pets agreed that it’s incumbent on owners to be proactive in order to protect their pets.
“My best advice is to simply make sure your cats and dogs aren’t allowed out to roam away from the home, especially overnight,” Pinkham said. “Just make sure your pets are close by or in. And make sure they’re up to date on their rabies shots.”
Any stray pets picked up get taken to local shelters and, by law, cannot be adopted for three (cats) or seven (dogs) days. Strays with wounds of unknown origin cannot be adopted and will be euthanized if their owners don’t claim them within the same time frame.
“We always brought our cats in at night, but every now and then they get out and don’t come back for awhile,” said O’Neill, who has two cats, one kitten and two dogs currently at her home. “Now we’re just bringing them in all the time.
“We’re trying to transition to having just indoor cats all the time now.”
FISHERS,RACCOONS,ZOMBIES-get your cats in at night…
Have any of these people heard of keeping their animals indoors? DUH
Well that would be just common sense wouldn’t it. I’ve saved a few dogs from getting flattened this year and the owners were grateful that someone took the time to stop and go door to door. Which is fine, but what ticked me off was one place where the guy tells me it happens all the time and all they did was holler out to the dog with out going after it. One woman told me she’d taken that dog home multiple times. At what point do you not leash your pet or keep them indoors unless they need to relieve themselves or go for a walk. You gotta take some responsibility for your pets be they cats, dogs, or a hamster.
Especially for cats, indoor is the only way to go. When our kids were growing up our cat was an indoor cat. Our daughter now has four cats and they’re all indoor.
I agree, in the country you can afford to let them out and try and make sure they are in at night. In the city they belong inside. Something else to consider, there are some real jerks out there that will do awful stuff to cats if they get a hold of them. I have seen older teens case them and harass them on my side of town. Just don’t leave them out.
the country is very dangerous too.Not as many cars,but alot more foxes and coyotes.
ATTENTION CAT-PEOPLE: SOME PEOPLE ARE CAR-PEOPLE; When I find a cat sun bathing on the hood of my car, I take care of it! Call me the fox….
I’m not surprised. We have a very large population of both fox and coyote in Kenduskeag, so it only makes sense that they would be in and around Bangor. You can almost count on hearing them every night in the spring and summer.
“…laughing noise at night.” Must be Hyenas, I have yet to hear coyotes make a laughing sound.
Actually, the Great Horned owl will perch in a tree at night watching the ground below. When a prospective food/prey item is seen, but remains immobile, the owl will let loose a banshee-like wail. Anything alive will involuntarily jump out of its skin–including a person–and the owl then will swoop down and attempt to catch it–be it a rabbit, cat, rat–or whatever. We still laugh at a night when my daughter, then 16, took the dog out for a last pee break at around 10pm. I asked if she wanted me to accompany her, and she said, “No–I’m not afraid of the dark!” Minutes later, one such wail issued from a nearby tree, and both daughter and dog were back in the house before the count of three. We agreed this owl sounded like he was laughing at how quickly he made a mockery of her words! Other species of owls do sound like they are laughing when they call between each other. I’m not certain which kind sounds this way–possibly visiting Great Gray owls–but we do have them in the Maine woods.
I was being facetious…
Better yet keep your cats inside during the day too. This is about the only plus I can think of for having coyotes around.
Well, I remember calling the Department of Wildlife when I was concerned about my dog getting killed by all the fox in the area. They told me not to worry because the dog could co more damage to the fox…reason being fox do not have teeth like dogs do. A cat, of course, does not have the set of teeth a dog has. Now, a cayote is a different matter.
“fox do not have teeth like dogs do”
Foxes have teeth.
You mean “Foxes do not have teeth like dogs have.”
Fox don’t have killer teeth like a dog does…look it up on Wikipedia. BTW, the plural of fox is either fox or foxes…look it up!
Be careful the grammar drone is in the air watching!
As I recall, foxes don’t howl, but coyotes do. And invading coyotes will drive foxes even more into town. Keep your pets inside, or else …
Two major predators of cats are Fishers and Great Horned Owls. Coyotes are way down on the list. I have seen, in the moonlight, foxes chase my cats up my road away from their territory. This is done in the spring when there are young in the den. They have never taken one for food.
No kidding , especially 5 of them ! What the heck is going on on Howard St. that 5 cats from one household disappear. I had cats in the middle of nowhere and never lost one. One did lose an eye in a fight with something but not sure what. We even had a fox den on the corner of our property. Not saying they can’t or wont take a cat but geez, 5 cats in one year.
Fisher also take cats any time they get a chance. Fisher are down in numbers right now but they are around. They really help keep porcupine damage in check and porcupines are getting numerous. Fruit trees are hit here.
Some cats are not the nicest animals when they start spending time preying on songbirds. Not to be cruel, but cat predators do help keep things natural.
It’s good to manage cats to keep them safe from predators, and so they don’t become undesirable predators themselves.
I agree, we ahve cats that go outdoors, and if they were to be eaten by a predator, well, that’s just the natural way of things. Certainly much preferable to getting run over or slowly wasting away over a long period.
There are measures that can be taken to limit outdoor cats hunting songbirds. We collar ours with bells and noisy tags and it has really worked well. Also not setting up a birdfeeder in your backyard while simultaneously letting your cats out. That’s just mean!
I live just outside of Bangor and my husband personally watched a coyote (He’s capable of recognizing the difference between a coyote and a husky canine) cross the field in front of our house with a dead housecat in its mouth. It’s not often they are seen during the daylight hours, but I’ve seen them cross the back yard in the past as well.
It’s not a stretch of the imagination to believe that they are in the more wooded areas of Bangor IMO.
Years ago there was a bounty of sorts on the pelts, and I knew many people who hunted them. Their biggest threat is human, and not many humans hunt them anymore. Their numbers are bound to be up as a result.
I know dozens of people who hunt Coyote….it has nothing to do with a bounty on the pelts we/they do it because they decimate the deer population and the State of Maine wants people to kill as many as possible….last winter I know of one man who killed over 20.
When you find some of these deer decimating coyotes please live trap and release on MDI. Our deer population is way too large and we can’t seem to interest our coyotes in venison so they live harmoniously in the same area. Actually, our coyotes will dine on a dead deer and perhaps they dispatch some of those hit on the roads. They just don’t seem to be all that interested in taking a healthy strong one down.
what you really need is three to four feet of snow to slow down the deer herds escape trails, but even a trip into a Northern deer yard that has been slaughtered will give you a better understanding.
We had 3-4 feet in the winter of 2010-2011 but the deer still flourished. There are people who maintain feeding stations around here which doesn’t help in the natural scheme of things.
Stock up the freezer for winter?
Oh and make some venison sausage and I’ll be by to pick it up.
I wouldn’t be opposed to hunting on MDI. I would enjoy picking a package of venison out of my freezer but alas, I’m not a hunter.
Perhaps MDI should allow hunting to reduce the deer herd
I understand why (and agree with why) they hunt them now. I’m glad they’re thinning them.
I meant that I believe the population went up (from when I was growing up) when people stopped trapping them.
35 years ago, they were less prevalent then they are now. That was when there were still people who made a living pelting.
I highly doubt that foxes are to blame for missing cats. These dogs are small, about 5″ shorter than my 20″ female border collie. That is about the size of a Sheba Inu (breed of dog). Coyotes seems a more likely suspect due to size (about 24″ tall) and diet. I have heard at least 2 coyotes in the field between Saxl Park and Howard St. I also have come across dens that could be either Coyote or fox dens (previous woodchuck burrows). The more Bangor sprawls outward with more houses, more box stores and little Housing developments, the more these beautiful animals are going to be around people, and pushed to the assorted small wild and green areas around town. These animals are not infringing on OUR space. We are pushing into theirs and must adjust our lives accordingly. As for housecats, most vets recommend keeping your cat indoors. It will lengthen the lifespan of your pet considerably. Oh yeah, Coyotes “Yip”, they don’t laugh.
I highly doubt that foxes are to blame for missing cats. These dogs are small, about 5″ shorter than my 20″ female border collie. That is about the size of a Sheba Inu (breed of dog). Coyotes seems a more likely suspect due to size (about 24″ tall) and diet. I have heard at least 2 coyotes in the field between Saxl Park and Howard St. I also have come across dens that could be either Coyote or fox dens (previous woodchuck burrows). The more Bangor sprawls outward with more houses, more box stores and little Housing developments, the more these beautiful animals are going to be around people, and pushed to the assorted small wild and green areas around town. These animals are not infringing on OUR space. We are pushing into theirs and must adjust our lives accordingly. As for housecats, most vets recommend keeping your cat indoors. It will lengthen the lifespan of your pet considerably. Oh yeah, Coyotes “Yip”, they don’t laugh.
Heather,foxes will carry off a cat.Many people out there have seen it.
Cats should be kept indoors. For their safety and for their family’s peace of mind. It would greatly benefit the songbirds of Maine as well.
and probably stop a lot of unwanted kittens from being conceived as well….
Unless they’re fixed. Not all people who let their cats out are irresponsible. Our cats used to live in the country, and when we moved into town they simply would NOT be satisfied with staying indoors. They were excaping all the time, so we got over it and decided to just let them out.We realize that roaming cats do cause problems – but we keep ours vaccinated and flea-treated, and collared to hopefully cut down on fights and songbird hunting. Our cats bring us plenty of mice but over the past six or so years only 1 or 2 birds. There are a lot of songbirds in the neighborhood, so Its not like they’re grabbing every one that comes by.
And I realize that it is dangerous outside and that they will not live as long if they go outdoors. But they are happier outside – and we would rather them live shorter, happier lives than longer, unhappy lives. That’s how I’d rather it be for myself anyway.
Do you also go to your neighbors’ gardens and clean up the “cat box” your cat has established? Or offer to clean up the cat urine that is sprayed around the houses of indoor-cat owning neighbors?
We have a big garden ourselves and so far have not found a single dropping in ours. We have several boxes indoors which our cats appear to use quite frequently.
There are also several strays (or perhaps just poorly taken care of outdoor pets) in the neighborhood, so while I’m sure our cats probably do spray, they are certainly only a small part of the problem (and probably would not need to spray if the unfixed /strays weren’t around).
And my dogs only poo a little so they are only a small part of the problem and yet I don’t leave their waste in others yards. Perhaps if everyone took care of their small part of the the problem the problem would be solved. Responsible owners keep their animals inside or under their control.
I’ve not received any copmplaints of our cats using the neighbor’s gardens – if I did then I would at very least clean it up. Like I said above, we have the largest garden for several blocks and are in it constantly and have never found cat poop. I cannot say 100% sure that our cats are not gonig elsewhere, but since we provide them a place inside, that they appear to use with great frequency, I would have a hard time believing that they are creating any problems.
I don’t know of many animals that are happier getting run over by a car than lounging around on a window perch. They can be just as happy indoors — if you’re willing to be responsible and play with them and provide toys and perches. You can also walk them on a leash.
Our cats will not be walked on a leash – we have tried it many times following suggestions that we have found in booksm, online, etc. They are too independent for it I guess.
Our cats will also not stay indoors, no matter how hard we have tried. When they were young and we lived literally in the middle of nowhere they grew accustomed to going out and now they are pretty adept escape artists. So we have just accepted that if they are going to go out that we should be as responsible as we can about it – we collar them, have all their vaccines, flea meds, etc. Once you go that far and they are begging incessantly to go out, and you know thwy’re probably just going to escape anyway, its not much of a stretch to just open the door for them.
That is why my cats and small house dog are house pets. They live longer by far and I live on the edge of the woods so their fate would be a certain death. Be it auto, animal or cruelty our pets deserve us to protect them by keeping them safe. Oy yes spay and neuter I do even my house pets because we all know the cat over-population is a terrible thing.
LOL, know what else is a terrible thing ? A house cat in heat or a male that sprays…I had my female house cat spayed after going through 1 heat ( that was enough ! ). Never, ever not spay or neuter even your indoor cat. There are enough cats, even the shelter shut down to cats today because they just have so many.
Never, ever not spayor neuter ANY cat!
Keep your pets inside!!! The data doesn’t lie. Almost 2 to 1 in life span. It is not a matter of if, but when!! Wake up people!!
why would you have more than one cat unless you want to feed coyotes or a mental problem anyway keep them inside or shut up
That’s rude. Perhaps she’s speaking up to let others know, rather than complaining.
SUPER! Wait till my boxer and pitbull get a load of that. Problem solved and crisis averted! My pitbull is a phenomenal hunter and protects his territory! Bring it on!
Don’t know about pit v fox/coyote, but in a pit v fisher scenario my money is gonna be in the fisher.
I live in Orono, this subdivision has lost many cats to fishers, including one of mine.
So… Keep the cats inside?!
Myself, I’d rather my cats go out and be eaten by a fisher than live to an unnatural age and lose their hearing, sight, and ability to jump before their owner finally gets the nerve to put them down.
As an alternative to being attacked/run over and possibly suffering before they either die on their own because they are unable to return to their home or the pain and suffering of recovering at home/the vet’s if they DO make it home to receive care?
Well, by the sounds of it, if WVOM would rather the cat be eaten by a fisher most likely if the cat was injured and came home, it wouldn’t receive vet care either. We wouldn’t want it living to an “unnatural” age afterall.
We’ve not only had our cats into the emergency vet clinic several times, we also took a neighbor’s in – at our expense – when a dog got hold of it and messed it up pretty badly. That in addition to at least annual checkups.
We take very good care of our animals, but they are adult anuimals and I don’t think either they or I feel like its my job to somehow protect them from harm. We provide them a loving, warm, healthy home, but what they do on their own terms is not for me to decide. They have their own free will.
With that freedom there may come some perils, and we would definitely do whatever could be done to help them recover. They are members of our family after all.
However, too often I have met animals who are of such an advanced age that they can no longer do the basics – move more than 10 steps at a time, control their bodily functions, have lost their sight, hearing, etc., require an inordinate amount of medicines to control various failing organs, get sent across state lines for intensive surgeries… while the animal continues to suffer, because the owner thinks they are doibng it a favor allowing it to live.
Define suffering – a few moments or at worst hours of physical pain vs. a few weeks or months of keeping an animal that wants to roam penned in, until you finally break their spirit and they accept their confinement.
I myself would rather life free and die young than to spend a long life in a prison.
“Unnatural age”?
You should not own a cat.
Yes, when the animal requires hundreds of dollars of pills each month to live and several surgeries, that IS unnatural.
Our cats go out, exercise, chase little critters and socialize with people. They are extremely happy and healthy because of that. If they happen to die at a young age, then so be it. I think in the end yes, they WOULD be happier to live the life that cats have lived for thousands of years and have it be cut short than to have been cooped up and isolated and waiting out death.
As someone who likes to feed wild birds and enjoys watching them, I wish people would keep their cats indoors.
I also wish the foxes and coyotes would do their job and keep the cat population down.
There could also be fisher cats around and they will eliminate all cats and small dogs in an area very quickly…. They are extremely hard to catch ,you need to find a well seasoned old time trapper to catch one …………
Get Bill Randall down here, he will take care of it being an old “born again” trapper…Scratch that idea, he’s too busy throwing American Servicemen under the bus.
Yes, I am a member of the Veterans for Peace and we sometimes get criticized for no longer being war mongers. We are no longer blinded by the flag and have learned by age and experience not to be a conditioned lemming.
Bill, Thank you for your service and for standing up for what you believe in.
I don’t know where that cheap shot came from?
Does your organization support the ideology of the Communist Party of America (CPUSA) ?
Is your question an attempt to demean me and the Veterans for Peace organization? I enjoy intelligent and rational banter but care not for cheap shots. I’ve seen enough of those in my early days.
I asked a very simple yes or no question. Is it uncomfortable for you to answer? If you don’t want to answer, I understand. I then prove my point.
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
kTel, you obviously are not a trapper. Please know that fishers are one of the easiest animals to catch. One does not even have to know anything about trapping to catch one. Trappers have tried to make everyone think that trapping takes the skill of a rocket scientist. Other than trapping a fox, a 10-year-old retard can easily catch all of the fur bearers without any previous instruction. Remember, trappers and trapping is under the spot light and they are trying their best to make people think they are needed. Even an elderly grandmother who has lived in an apartment all of her life can set and catch an animal in a live trap – and with five minutes of instruction by me, she can catch any animal we have in the State of Maine. Trapping ain’t rocket science, Sir.
Foxes eat little bitty rodents and bugs. Coyotes eat little bitty cats and dogs.
Coyotes eat little bitty and big rodents. I often have coyotes very close to my house. My cats are out every night in nice weather and I’ve yet to lose one.
What’s so hard about keeping the pet under control and better yet indoors.
The local cat lady has lost many over the winter and this summer…. good. Nature’s own pe(s)t control for cats. No one needs 5+ cats to roam and multiply willy nilly.
You make the assumption that indoor/outdoor cats are not fixed. Many are (those that aren’t will usually develop a great habit of spraying everythnig indoors, which gets their owners to fix them).We have two cats that lived for several years in the middle of nowhere, and yes, they went outside. Looking back I wish we’d ahve kept them in. When we moved into the middle of bangor we tried to keep them in, but they wouldn’t have it. Escaped time and time again. So we decided to just let them have it, but we keep them collared and vaccinated and do our best to keep them from being a nuisance.
In regards to pe(s)t control, well, perhaps I have a little more cavalier attitude about it than most, but I would feel better about our cats being eaten by a fox in the prime of their life than dying a slow and drawn-out death, slowly losing their senses, physical abilities, and generally wasting away for several years. The former is the natural course of life for a small mammal, the latter is not.
Indoor cats make the best pets. I had a beautiful one many years ago that unfortunately escaped from the house and never made it back. Haven’t had one since.
When I say pests I have the (feral) cats that are running around here courtesy of a ‘lady’ who is rather irresponsible with her cats, none of which are spayed or neutered, aren’t given proper vet care and roam at will. They are in the trash and stalk the bird feeders. She recently lost quite a few, they never last in these woods due to the fox, coyote and elements. She is not alone in how she collects cats as there seem to be many ‘cat lady’ types in all sorts of places.
Sadly responsible owners such as yourself are in the minority.
Thank you. Many people here seem to have a hard time understanding that many people who let their cats out – to be cats – are more attentive and take better care of their cats than many who keep them locked indoors and totally ignore them.
Fishers. They make their living off porcupines — a house cat looks like a jelly doughnut in comparison.
Next time I speed down Howard Street (in passive aggressive homage to their effort to become a one-way semi-private road), I’ll relish in the thought that I’m also doing them a service by scaring away animals. Heck, maybe I’ll even blow my horn a time or two to help scare the critters off.
What we really need is more coyotes and foxes to rid the woods of the real problem – the house cats that people allow to roam throughout the area catching and killing all they can catch. As a trapper of old, in a single trapping season, I caught 28 of the darn things in my traps. I was advised by the local game warden to kill them all – which is what I did with the exception of two kittens.
Brilliant.More rabid animals instead of animals that may be tagged or pets.THAT will help.
All I have to say is SHAME on your game warden!!!
He was Maine’s all time worst career game warden and I would tell you his name except for the fact that he has literally threatened to harm me for revealing his unprofessional and illegal practices. Please know that the vast majority of Maine game wardens I’ve known over the many years as a sportsman have been of the finest kind. One of Maine’s finest wardens is my next door neighbor and friend and he is out working in his garden about 150 yards away from me as I write this note.
The problem is not unspayed cats/dogs(although that does matter)but unspayed people.
You beat me to the punch. I was just going to say the same thing.
I’m pretty sure I lost my wonderful Nana calico (14 years old) to a coyote here in Orono. One had been spotted right down the street the day before she never came home. And when I lived in Bangor on outer Essex I could hear coyotes howl many nights.
I have 6 cats and 2 dogs.All of them have all the needed vaccines,and are spay/neutered.My cats are all indoor only cats,and my dogs are only outdoors on leash,and I stay with them.Last week,on a rainy morning around 9 a.m. I stepped outdoors to check on a noise I heard.Right in the middle of the driveway there was a big healthy coyote.He ran one way and I ran the other.I reported it,but Im sure he had hidden by then.He has also been around a couple of other times.If you have cats,keep them in.If you have dogs,fences or runs are great,but stay with them.
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“Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Game Warden Jim Fahey said the area near O’Neill’s home is ideal for coyotes.”
Interesting because I was always advised by the district wardens to tell the people that the fishers killed and ate their cats. I’m talking about the queries I received from the owners of the 28 cats that I trapped and killed one fall while trapping in the Augusta/Readfeld area. We were also advised by the Maine Trapper’s Association to never, ever release a cat from a trap as it would end up on the front page of a newspaper as an anti trapping article after the veterinary hospital fixed it’s broken leg or shoulder. Cats fight like hell in a trap and they are very difficult to turn lose without hurting them. I am not anti trapping but I am a man who will tell the truth about trapping. Traps are not selective and don’t be fooled by the trappers who often say that they are. I’ve even caught my own hunting dogs a few times and they didn’t like the feel of the trap on their foot anymore than I would have. There, you now have it in a nutshell and feel free to quote me as you wish.
Thank you BDN for the respectful report on canis latrans var., the Eastern coyote. Probably a cross between western coyotes and wolves, they are indeed in our midst, but we have had an almost religious zeal when we slaughtered every last wolf east of the Mississippi, then in the West as well, and now justify open season on coyotes, classified as “vermin.”
Keep your pets near you, everybody! Coyotes are fearful of humans unless they’re fed. Get a big guard dog; install motion-sensitive lighting. And remember, your precious cats probably do more to kill off the resident wildlife population, especially species of birds, than Eastern coyotes kill off your dogs and cats.
Please don’t revile these creatures. Listen to their nighttime crooning and realize that Nature still exists nearby, despite our efforts to destroy it.
I enjoy the coyotes around my house.
Mostly make jerky out of them.
We have our neighbor’s donkey in our pasture most of the summer. But donkey just went back home. Donkey is needed there to keep the foxes away from the turkeys. — A simple answer to anyone who wants to drive away the foxes. Get a donkey and foxes will have to hunt mice.
The humble Farmer
I don’t understand how you can kill 5 cats before you think it’s a good idea to start keeping them inside. You have no business having pets. Unbelievable.
Do we need anything at the store? Yes, we’re out of cats, could you pick up a few more please!
Kinda interesting that Patt Pinkham (who lives in Stetson) doesn’t understand that coyotes are indeed running all over that part of Bangor.
I wonder why these people who have like “five cats,” keep letting them out in the city, & then wonder what happens to them when they don’t come home, even have pets? They’re soooo cute when they’re kittens, but when they become cats, take ’em to a shelter or just let them outside, then go get another cute kitty…
Cats and dogs let outside to roam freely are in danger of being killed or maimed by foxes, coyotes, fishers and owls. Those wild creatures are doing what comes naturally; finding food. They are living where they’re intended to live; outdoors.
Man has pushed into the areas that these wild animals have been living in, so we’re the intruders, not them. We’ve harmed the natural order of things so badly by insisting that we are the only ones whose lives matter, who have the “right” to be alive and left alone to live as we want.
I don’t understand the thinking of those people who feel supreme to other living beings. Our ecosystem depends on every living form to survive and thrive. Why can’t everyone see, understand and respect that?
All domesticated pets allowed to roam freely outside are in danger of humans in any form…in vehicles, on foot, with poison, guns, bow and arrow, traps, a baseball bat… That list is endless, depending on the level of cruelty of any individual, and, oftentimes, the level of trust of any one pet cat or dog.
Tame animals roaming outside are also in danger of meeting up with rabid skunks, raccoons, bats, etc.
They can get trapped inside buildings, in big holes, in containers, in anything that looks interesting. Think of what a curious 3 yr old child could find for danger, if left outside alone for hours on end, and you have an idea of what can befall an unsupervised pet. The list of what harm can befall an animal, especially a cat, is horrifingly long.
Tame pets outside can fight with other animals, lose an eye or even a limb, get abscesses. be exposed to aids and leukemia, if feline. They can get pregnant if unspayed, cause pregnancies, if unneutered. The list of potential injuries to a free roaming domestic pet is LIMITLESS.
They don’t always die immediately. They often crawl off, hide, suffer and die agonizingly slow deaths. So that pet that “disappeared” or “didn’t come home one day” didn’t just vanish off the face of the earth easily. It may have suffered horribly and finally died alone. That supposedly loved pet died a worse death than someone would wish on their worst enemy.Or if it survives an encounter outside often someone else finds the animal, doesn’t know what to do with it, and takes it to a shelter or animal rescue person. Then someone else’s decision to let their pet outside now becomes the responsibility and, often the heartbreak, of that rescue person, of which I am one… A very tired one. I could write a book of all the heartbreaking stories of these pet cats and dogs, and many of their stories are a result of going outside by themselves…
If you truly love your animals, keep them inside, out of harm’s way. Supervise them when they’re outside. It really isn’t that difficult to do, and it certainly is not cruel in any way.
I am surprised that Pat Pinkham has any comment at all. She does not pick up an animal unless YOU crate the animal yourself. How would she know? All she does is ride around Bangor. I am appalled that she is not even a resident of BANGOR.
As for keeping cats inside…have you ever tried to keep a bolting cat from escaping when you open the door. For those of you who do not own or even like a cat should not comment. You do not know what We CAT owners are talking about. Besides, Four cats per resident is the limit in the City of Bangor. One who owns 5 or more is already irresponsible!!
Idea keep ur pets inside ! i have a few cats and they are all indoor cats would never let them out we had a cat that got out and we didnt stop looking for him 3 days later he was home! keep ur pets in and u wont have missing pets duuh!
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