The West Hollywood coyote meeting Thursday night packed Plummer Park with standing-room-only crowds. KTLA Channel 5 was there. Director of Community Safety Danny Rivas spent nearly two hours listening to frustrated eastside residents describe what many called feeling “held hostage” by aggressive coyotes.
The West Hollywood coyote meeting drew sharp divides. Some residents demanded immediate action. Others urged the community to learn to coexist with wildlife displaced by recent fires. “It’s not uncommon for them to see [coyotes], but they’re saying that they’re seeing more, and this is from long-time residents.” Rivas told WEHOonline after the meeting. “I’ve never had a group of residents so insistent on wanting to meet and wanting to have a discussion.”
Daily sightings at all hours
Resident after resident from Poinsettia Drive, Poinsettia Place, and Greenacre Avenue described seeing packs of coyotes daily—not just at night, but at 6 PM, 11 AM, even 2 in the afternoon. “I’ve lived here 40 years and I’ve never seen it this bad,” one Poinsettia Drive resident said. “It’s daily and it’s getting worse.” Residents first started reporting the problem back in October when coyotes began showing up regularly in broad daylight. The situation escalated when residents discovered someone was feeding and sheltering them. One Fuller Avenue resident told Rivas her building has a neighbor who feeds coyotes by hand. “They feel comfortable coming up to humans in our area because she feeds them constantly,” she said. “We’ve reported this to building management. We’ve reported it to the authorities. We had multiple complaints against her.”
Mating season making it worse
The City knows about properties where feeding is happening. Code Compliance is looking into it. “It is mating season for coyotes, generally between January and March,” Rivas told the crowd. “You will see an increased level of sightings, not just here in West Hollywood, but throughout the county of Los Angeles.” Hand-feeding wildlife is illegal in LA County and West Hollywood. First offense is $250. Third offense is $1,000. Crawl spaces under homes have turned into dens. Rivas said the City can help property owners close them up.
Former West Hollywood City Councilmember and Mayor Steve Martin, who’s lived on Poinsettia Drive for 15 years, said he’s never seen it this bad. “I’m really worried that once the mating season is over, they’re going to be having puppies under somebody’s house, and they are going to be incredibly more aggressive,” Martin said. “Right now, I can chase them all the way to Fountain because they are afraid of people. But once they’ve got children, they’re going to be a different animal.”
Divided community
Not everyone wanted the coyotes gone. “This is a huge opportunity for us to experience what it would be to coexist with nature,” one resident said. “They are here. This is it. We’re all together in this.” Another resident who’s lived there 40 years said education beats fear. “The last time a coyote attacked a person or went after a child was decades ago,” he said. “Get yourself educated. That will take away some of the fear.”
Others weren’t having it. A resident described how coyotes jumped over a client’s fence and attacked their dog causing severe injuries. A dog walker described what happened to one of her clients. “His next door neighbor came home from work one day and led his Great Dane in the yard, went to take a shower, came out, and a pack was basically killing his Great Dane,” she said. “That’s not a little dog. This is the guy with the Great Dane.
Lori, a long-time resident who helped organize the meeting, asked Rivas directly what the City could do to help. “We have become involved in a situation where on Poinsettia and Greenacre, and from what I understand, Fuller, we are seeing coyotes day and night all the time,” she said. “We’re seeing them in our front yard, walking down the street, and when you encounter one, whether it is their territory or ours, it is frightening. We’re asking for some level of safety.”
Another resident said, “We are living in fear because our animals are in fear. We don’t have any sense of safety when they come into your yard after they jump your fences.”
One resident described a coyote following him through his gate late at night. “I don’t know what the coyote’s intention was when he followed me into my gate, but I didn’t have a small animal. I didn’t have loose food,” he said. “He was on my heels. And that’s concerning.”
What the City will do
Rivas promised more security ambassador patrols on the three affected streets. Sheriff’s deputies will increase patrols too. Code Enforcement will ticket property owners who feed coyotes or leave crawl spaces unsecured. The team will inspect vacant lots and construction sites where coyotes are denning. The City is scheduling a larger community meeting with Los Angeles County Department of Agriculture experts and wildlife nonprofits for March or April. That West Hollywood coyote meeting will include professionals who can answer technical questions about coyote behavior and management. “I think we definitely need to be proactive,” Rivas said. He told WEHOonline “There’s obviously factors where folks expressed that they’re seeing more sightings than they’ve had in the past. These are from long-time residents. So we’re definitely going to be more proactive in the 3 streets that were mentioned.”
Rivas and his team—including code enforcement officers, West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station Lieutenant Ashley Turner and Sergeant Omar Luevano, and public safety staff—stayed after the meeting to talk with individual residents about specific properties and concerns. Residents left feeling City Hall was finally listening and taking their safety concerns seriously.
One resident posted afterward: “I walked away from the meeting with a clearer idea of what is going on. Coyotes are being fed on multiple streets and that is the issue. We can’t co-exist if one of the species is misbehaving (sadly humans are). The city needs to hold anyone who does accountable.”
Residents who see coyotes frequently on specific properties should report it to the Community Safety Department. Contact Danny Rivas at (323) 848-6424 or drivas@weho.org.
Editor’s Note: Full disclosure: This reporter is an eastside resident who shares the community’s concerns about increased coyote activity.
The coyotes described in this article are probably getting used to an urban environment. There are plenty of sources of water ( watered lawns, leaking faucets, etc.) to drink plus the constant trash on street curbs help feed these animals.
You also have stray cats in the neighborhoods where coyotes can get at them easily. Other wild animals such as raccoons and birds are another source of food. Until residents get a handle on these sources,you will continue to have problems with coyotes.
Of course, in WeHo, a coyote meeting to protect our chihuahuas is standing room only, while the destruction of our city’s businesses, increased prices, and the hijacking of our city council barely gets any attention.
That’s the real WeHo right there
The city should safely trap and release these regulars in the wild where they can thrive.
Interesting that there was no mention at this meeting about what to do and say if a coyote gets close. In heavily effected areas, the city should consider warning signs on parkways that tell residents what to do and where to call.
I encourage you to do your own research, but if one is physically and mentally able, the expert recommendation is to appear as large and loud as possible and ideally the coyote will turn tail. A pack of coyotes might prove more challenging. West Hollywood Community Safety at 323.848.6414. Hope that helps!🍀
I hear great horned owls at night sometimes. They never came here before the fires.
A couple of years ago I had a wonderful late night encounter with a pair of great horned owls who were serenading each other in the sycamores in front of my house. As I came out one swooped down over my head followed by the other; they were huge and incredible.
Yep I’ve seen the great horned owls on the Petit Ermitage. You can hear them at night from the Trader Joe’s parking lot.