We have a pack around us. I hear them at night all the time. I've even heard them walking in the cobblestone, which surrounds the edge of the house, right under the window at night. I see their scat all the time. When the pack wanders away for a few months, the population of pocket gophers and jackrabbits go way up and I start getting a lot of gopher holes in the turf and eaten up plants in the garden. When the pack re-enters this part of their territory, those problems go away.
We are in a rural/ag area and people around here just don't have a problem with them. I have seen a couple of them pester a newborn calf in the daytime on the ranch next door, but I don't know of anyone reporting killed pets and certainly not children.
I used to be a professional guide, and have spent numerous multiple-week expeditions in the Rockies, Sierra, Appalachians, and southern coastal river swamps. I have encountered bobcats, black bears, wild boars, and coyotes, all during both daytime and while sleeping in a sleeping bag under a tarp at night. I've also encountered water moccasins, copperheads, rattlesnakes, and alligators during the daytime. Once on the A.T. in VA, we tiptoed through a bed of 14 eastern diamondbacks, 6 on one side of the trail and 8 on the other. Normally just keeping your cool and not doing something dumb is enough. Often, animals can tell by instinct whether you are a threat to them. In the Rockies, once in CO and once in NM, I came upon a heard of Elk, took off my pack, and walked among the herd for several miles. When I lived in the Sierra, a friend and I would often jog together on a logging road. There was one coyote that would often follow us and we would sometimes chase him if he was in front of us. In the CO Rockies, there have been several nights, both summer and winter, that my camp was surrounded by a pack of coyotes, who did nothing more than howl all night. I came to cherish that sense of wildness. Their chorus gave me a sense of peace that I was in a natural place as God had created it instead of some ugly city built by man. When I was a kid, I lived in rural south GA, had guns and hunted. I started spending serious time in the wilds in scouts during high school and then became a guide during my college summers. I continued guiding during summers and on nordic ski-packing expeditions in the winter. In all the thousands and thousands of miles I've packed and paddled, I have never encountered a situation in which I really and truly needed a gun.
I have conservative friends who think I'm too liberal and liberal friends who think I'm too conservative. Personally, I try to take a level headed, middle of the road, common sense approach to everything. Should ANWR be drilled? Probably, BUT with regulations more strict than any ever imposed. Should Yellowstone Park be drilled? Hopefully, never.
I absolutely cannot stand the suburbs. I used to live in a neighborhood where I could almost reach out my bathroom window and into the neighbor's window if I needed to borrow some shampoo. I hated it. Visiting some cities like Vancouver, Zurich, or San Francisco is something I can tolerate for a few days if I have to. I have the country in my blood. I work in the suburbs, but I had to have some wild space around me.
I think there are a lot of people who overreact to things they are not used to. I have liberal city friends who overreact to gun ownership and drives to open ANWR. I also have conservative friends whom I think are too radical in some of their beliefs. I do not intend for what I'm going to say to be offensive. Maybe people who hate the city shouldn't live there. Likewise, maybe people who are uncomfortable around the wilderness shouldn't live there. I think Eddie's situation with the pigs warrants reasonable action. They are animals who were previously domestic and have reverted to feral life. They are not really at home in any ecosystem. Coyotes, on the other hand, are not such a true threat. I moved to a rural area because I needed to be near some things wild. If hoards of people came here and started shooting everything wild, plowing up and paving over everything, and building high rises, I would not want to be here anymore. I came here to get away from all that and be near wild things. I absolutely love it when the coyotes around my house sing me to sleep at night. When I retire, I hope to move as deep into a forest as possible. With all humilty and with no malace intended, I really think that going out to shoot the coyotes is not necessary. There are two other choices: get used to them, or go back to the city. I personally like wild places and like living there. If one moves to to the country, there ought to be a reason for wanting to do that. If that person discovers that (s)he is actually frightened by the country, instead of trying to turn it into the city, (s)he can either get used to the country, or go back to the city. By shooting wild animals that are not truly dangerous, (s)he makes the country a little more like the city (s)he came there to escape.
This is not meant to be a flame and it is intended with no malice. Still, I really encourage you to think about this. Why did you move to this place to start with? Did you, like me, want to get away from too many people to a more rural and wild place? Wild things are a part of that. Rather than trying to make your surroundings more like the city you moved away from, I encourage you to make some efforts to try to embrace those things around you that are wild. You may discover that they are actually a part of what you were really looking for all along.
