I call them ghost coyotes because they don’t have long to live. They are skeletal, covered with mange and abnormally behaved, and I have spotted half a dozen of them in Malibu’s Las Flores Canyon over the past few years.
The coyotes where I live, on the Valley side of Saddle Peak Mountain in the Cold Creek watershed, have beautiful, glossy coats and are clearly healthy. The difference is that my neighbors wouldn’t dream of using of using rodenticides. Some homeowner or business in or near Las Flores Canyon is obviously using anticoagulant rodenticides to kill rats or mice, which results in suffering, grotesque, walking-dead coyotes.
I applaud the Planning Commission’s vote to ban rodenticides in Malibu. It is heartbreaking to see tormented, starving creatures as I drive through your city.
Mary Ellen Strote