Tell Greenwood Village to Stop Trapping and Killing Coyotes

The City of Greenwood Village is killing coyotes who they claim are a risk to companion animals and children in the area.
One leashed dog has already been caught in the well-hidden traps and many more humans and wild and domesticated animals are at risk. Colorado Revised Statue 33-6-201 prohibits the use of leg-hold traps with few exceptions, one of which is trapping “for the purpose of protecting human health or safety” (33-6-205). This is likely how the city manager was able to acquire permission to proceed with this barbaric form of “animal control.”                                                 

ACTION! Please contact Greenwood Village City Manager Jim Sanderson and politely request that the city immediately halt all trapping of coyotes.

Your talking points:
• The citizens of Colorado voted to ban trapping in 1996 precisely to avoid situations like this
• Trapping ensures a cruel, drawn-out and tremendously painful death for animals
• Scientific research shows that efforts to contain coyote populations may actually increase their numbers
• Traps are dangerous to citizens, domesticated animals, birds and other wildlife
• This is not a long-term solution; more coyotes will simply move in
• Greenwood Village should be more creative and proactive in its problem solving
• Wildlife is integral to Colorado and citizens must learn to coexist with it

Tell Greenwood Village Not To Kill Coyotes!

The city council of Greenwood Village, Colorado just approved an ordinance allowing a coyote-extermination plan within city limits. Costing taxpayers $200 a day, a private pest control company will patrol the village streets shooting coyotes down on sight.

Further compounding this outrageous cruelty, the Greenwood city council has requested a trapping permit to exempt them from state law that bans the use of cruel steel-jawed leghold traps. If Greenwood is granted the permit, coyotes -- and likely non-target wildlife and pets -- will suffer excruciating deaths in the jaws of these indiscriminate, barbaric devices, even though Coloradoans voted overwhelmingly to ban them in 1996.  

Coyote-extermination plans like those being adopted by Greenwood Village are not only cruel; they have been proven ineffective at reducing coyote populations. Remaining coyotes quickly rebound by producing more pups, and neighboring coyotes move in and fill the empty niches.

There are a slew of non-lethal, alternative approaches -- like those adopted by neighboring Centennial, Colo. -- that Greenwood Village can implement to promote co-existence, rather than extermination, of Colorado's native wildlife. Please urge the city to adopt a more effective, humane coyote management plan.

9News coverage of this can be found here: http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=69721