Wheaton taking aim to reduce coyote population

Weeks after a small dog had to be put to sleep after it was seriously injured in a coyote attack, Wheaton officials have agreed to take steps to cull the city's coyote population.

City council members decided Monday to seek prices from several licensed trappers to begin a citywide effort to capture and euthanize coyotes.

"It's a very, very emotional situation that we're facing and the city is going to respond to it," Mayor Michael Gresk said Tuesday.

Traditionally, Wheaton and other municipalities have used public awareness campaigns to educate residents on how to coexist with coyotes. The biggest piece of advice has been to never feed or get close to the animals.

But Wheaton officials say the number of coyotes has risen significantly. And despite efforts to educate the public, the coyote problem has reached "a nuisance level" in the city.

For example, officials say they've received numerous reports of missing animals and the presence of animal body parts throughout the city. And because coyotes have been seen regularly around elementary schools, those schools have had to limit outdoor activities.

Officials also say coyotes are becoming a traffic hazard. Several coyotes have been struck and killed by vehicles.

Then there was the Jan. 27 attack on the dog while it was in the back yard of its owner's home on the 1500 block of Camden Place. The dog's owner saw what happened but wasn't approached by the coyote. The dog was so severely injured during the attack that it had to be put to sleep.

City Manager Don Rose said he believes a culling program "might go a long way toward reducing the nuisance factors."

"I am not convinced that it's going to cure the problem and remove all the coyotes from the community," Rose said. "But it should help in reducing the number of some of the problems that we've been experiencing."

Tim Schweizer, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said there are more than 30,000 coyotes in state.

"For the most part, they are part of the ecosystem," he said. "They don't necessarily do any harm unless they're given the opportunity."

That's why residents are encouraged to keep an eye on small pets, cover garbage cans and store pet food indoors.

Still, removal "certainly is an option" if coyotes are causing significant problems, like attacking pets, Schweizer said.

As long as a municipality hires someone who is licensed by the IDR, he added, "we don't have an issue with it."

Gresk acknowledges the coyote presence in DuPage County is "huge." And removing one coyote only creates a vacancy that allows another coyote to move in.

"You are not going to ever kill off all of the coyotes in DuPage," Gresk said. "I think what this will give us is an opportunity to eliminate some of the more insidious - some of the more pervasive - aspects of what they're doing."