Natural Threat: Coyotes, foxes encroach on subdivisions

Pet dogs have vanished out of back- yards during the night and been mauled by hungry coyotes.

The wild predators have been running loose in western and southern Greenwood, where police say about a dozen pets recently have been killed or reported missing from fenced yards. But residents have found that Johnson County Animal Control and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources can’t take care of the coyotes.

Neither agency can catch or remove coyotes from an area. Animal control focuses mainly on stray dogs and cats, and the state agency offers property owners advice on what they can do.

But Greenwood city officials want to step in and put a stop to the increasingly frequent attacks on pets, mostly in the Alden Place and Barrington subdivisions.

Greenwood City Council members are concerned the animals will devour more pets and potentially harm children. They’re looking at hiring trappers, imposing a rule to forbid residents from leaving food out to feed wild animals and searching an auto parts yard where the coyotes have been spotted and are believed to be hiding.

Police said the coyotes roam around wide areas and can hide nearly anywhere, but officers are looking at setting up traps that would allow them to catch the animals and release them somewhere else. They’re asking residents to take precautions with small pets, such as keeping an eye on them if they’re outside and keeping them indoors overnight.

Resident Jon Heilman keeps his schnauzer and a West Highland white terrier inside at night, so they’ll be safe.

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