WildEarth Guardians

Friday, May 22, 2009
Greenwood Village Police Wound Three Coyotes, Maimed Coyotes Flee

Officers Fail to Recover Bodies or Verify Kills
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. - Greenwood Village police reports indicate that police officers shot four coyotes between May 10-16 and in three of those cases, the maimed coyotes fled into cattails and across city parks and were never verified as killed. Two additional coyotes were killed by a private contractor: one in February and one in May. One of the coyotes was shot by police at Monaco Park, although the animal was fleeing from police, a pedestrian, and a bicyclist at the time. The police shot three coyotes (a forth was shot by a private contractor) near Tommy Davis Park because one person testified at a city council meeting that one coyote had jumped twice over her and a neighbor’s fence and jumped back out of the yards without incident.

“Greenwood Village is out of control, shooting and wounding coyotes, and then not tracking them down to be sure they are put out of their misery,” stated Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians. “The city’s reasons for shooting coyotes are becoming flimsier, and the police are creating a greater public safety threat with their reckless behavior,” continued Rosmarino.

Police reports show that three of the four coyotes shot by officers were never verified as dead, with their bodies never recovered:

The May report states: I shot the coyote as he ran east bound at about 65 yards away. The .22 caliber bullet from the department’s Ruger 10-22 struck the coyote about 4 inches behind the front left shoulder. The coyote did drop to the ground but got up and ran east bound into the heavy brush and swamp area on the eastern edge of the park. I checked this area but was unable to locate the animal. I believe the shot placement will eventually kill the animal.

The May 12 report states: I tracked the animal into Tommy Davis park where I safely and successfully shot the animal with the dept. suppressed .22 rifle. The animal continued thru the park and travelled north across Orchard Rd. where I successfully euthanized it in the Orchard Hills park, 9501 E. Orchard Rd. The animal was in the bottom of the canal when I dispatched it and it fell into the cattails. I was unable to retrieve the animal from where it was dispatched.

The May 16 report states: I shot this coyote once in the center of the ribs as it ran through the creek bottom. This knocked the coyote down, but he got up and ran north-east into the park. I was unable to locate the animal.

The body of the fourth coyote, killed on May 15, was thrown into a city dumpster, without any examination. Police do not know whether they’ve killed coyotes young or old, female or male, or whether the shot coyotes may have had nursing young.

The shot coyotes may have died slow, lingering deaths, or may still be suffering from their gunshot wounds. While in the May 12 report, the police officer said he "euthanized" one of them, because he did not recover the animal, he could not verify whether it was dead. The other 2 reports are also concerning: a coyote shot behind the shoulder, and another coyote shot in the ribs, then fleeing and possibly still suffering.

The area where one of the shootings occurred, and where the wounded coyote fled to the cattails, was just a few yards away from backyards. When WildEarth Guardians visited the site, children were swinging in those yards. In the name of public safety, the police shot an animal from 65 yards away and let that maimed animal flee, possibly into a backyard with children playing.

The police are sometimes using silencers on their guns, which decrease speed velocity and may increase the chance of wounding rather than killing a coyote. On none of the occasions did the coyotes approach the officers or act aggressively. An eye-witness to the May 15 incident reports that one officer flushed the coyote out of a hiding place and forced it to flee toward another waiting officer, who shot it.

“We think the police are using silencers to hide that they are killing animals who are running away from them and present no threat. This is senseless, indiscriminate, reckless, shooting and has to stop,” stated Rosmarino.

WildEarth Guardians has maintained that the city’s indiscriminate shooting program is much more of a threat than any that coyotes pose. The group maintains that its effort to haze coyotes so that they avoid people will do more to reduce conflict than lethal actions. The fact that police officers are wounding animals and not tracking them down and euthanizing them means that police may be creating a graver problem, of desperate, maimed coyotes. Moreover, without recovering the coyotes’ bodies, they are failing to investigate whether bullets are traveling beyond the animal shot.

The city’s recent spate of shootings was first reported in the Denver Post. After the Post story, the city issued a press release saying that the shootings occurred after “ongoing hazing efforts over the last several months,” but the city did not start hazing coyotes until May, and during its supposed hazing project, it has killed coyotes. Moreover, the city has criticized a volunteer hazing effort by WildEarth Guardians that started in February and even threatened to interfere with that effort. The group had not been hazing at Tommy Davis Park due to construction.

Greenwood Village’s aggressive lethal coyote control diverges sharply from other Denver area municipalities, who generally focus on hazing and education efforts and reserve control for coyotes who demonstrate aggression toward people.

“The fact that our volunteers - who include retirees and petite women - have scared away every coyote we’ve encountered, indicates the coyotes in Greenwood Village are not dangerous. With our volunteer hazing effort, we are solving the coyote issue for free, and yet the city is now gunning down coyotes for jumping a couple fences,” Rosmarino stated.

For more information, including the police reports, contact nrosmarino@wildearthguardians.org.