Coyote issue should be addressed now

While living in the Northwest suburban area for the better part of my 52 years, like many others, I have seen the occasional coyote, fox, raccoon and opossum. Over the past year, I have never seen as many coyotes in my neighborhood, as I have all my previous years combined.

Three weeks ago, my neighbor reported seeing a large coyote trotting down our street in the middle of the afternoon, while I played Frisbee with my dogs and a neighbor's dog in our side yard.

Last week, when going for an early morning walk with my dogs, (who with me, are lit up with colored LED pendants and lighted collars for visibility) I was startled to hear the sound of brush rattling across the street and a coyote explode out of an expanse of land that runs along the Northwest Highway railroad tracks and stop two feet in front of us. For several tense minutes, my dogs closely behind me, we walked backward and zigzagged across the street to follow more well-lit areas on our block. The coyote maintained the same uncomfortable 2' distance, with me hollering and waving my arms at my sides. It finally lost interest and thankfully trotted off.

I called the village of Mount Prospect to report the issue and was informed with that "yep, we are getting a lot of these calls" type of response and said that I should call the police department but there isn't anything that they are going to do.

This is concerning as there are both many small children, as well as dogs that all walk, play and live in my neighborhood. With urban sprawl, these coyotes are definitely becoming more brazen, and we should be looking at ways to address this issue before we see attacks.

Steven Deering

Mount Prospect