VHPD: City making progress with coyote, feral cat populations

After a trapper came in the spring of 2018 to capture and deal with the growing coyote population in the city of Vestavia Hills, animal control officer Jimmy Coleman said the population has been lessened, but the animals aren’t going away anytime soon.

“There’s no way we can eradicate every coyote in Vestavia Hills,” Coleman said.

While the population has been “knocked back,” Coleman said, the problem with coyotes and the threats they pose to small creatures still remains, even as the city tries to thin out the species’ population.

“We’re not the only ones having problems with them,” Coleman said.

Even if all the coyotes within city limits were taken away, a vacuum would be created and more coyotes would enter the city, Coleman said.

“It’s just really a never-ending cycle we have to deal with,” Coleman said.

Coyotes are hard to catch, causing the city to hire a trapper to catch the animals. The trapper caught 14 coyotes in the spring of 2018, Coleman said, and the police department is currently taking calls about coyotes in the winter of 2018 and early 2019. 

Residents who see problems should email or call Coleman, who will then gather the addresses and locate them on a map to be used by the trapper in 2019. Coleman said as of January, the department is receiving about one call a week about coyotes.

“When we caught them last year, people were seeing them in the daytime, walking down the road,” Coleman said.

Now, the animals are being seen again, but it’s late at night or early in the morning instead of broad daylight. The most notable sighting was in a resident’s front yard, where a coyote attacked and killed a deer in the fall of 2018.

Coyotes will kill small dogs and cats, but Coleman said thus far, no children have been bitten. Coyotes in this urban area are growing accustomed to seeing humans and aren’t running as much, he said.

Residents should keep food sources away, including dog and cat food. 

The traps used for coyotes do not have teeth and work as a snare trap, capturing the coyote by holding it, not maiming it. The traps are too small for a child to get into. The coyote is euthanized on the spot, as Alabama law prohibits the transportation of coyotes. The trapper then uses parts of the coyote to help attract other pests.

FERAL CATS

The problem of feral cats, which started a few years back, is decreasing, Coleman said. Where once the city had a large problem, they now have pockets they are dealing with, specifically in Cahaba Heights and an area near Tyler Road.

The number of colonies of feral cats has decreased in the past year, Coleman said. Cat traps are “live traps” — a cage with food in the back, equipped with a trip plate that locks the cat inside — and the cat is then taken to the Greater Birmingham Humane Society. In order to calm the cats down while making the trip, Coleman places a towel over the cage.

If the cat is able to be socialized, it is put up for adoption, a practice that is much easier with kittens, Coleman said.