Reason being, droves of Leawoodians are not driving their Range Rovers over to City Hall in hopes of acquiring the coyote trapping permits that seemed to be in great demand not so long ago.
“We had one homes association call to ask about it,” City Administrator Scott Lambers said Friday morning. “And another one called wanting me to do it.”
Yeah, sure. Leave it to the servants! Isn’t that just so Leawood?
Anyway, so far the coyotes have little to worry about. City leaders aren’t overly anxious to capture and euthanize the critters, which are said to have attacked nine dogs, many of them the small, purse-pooch variety. Seven of the attacks were fatal.
And neighborhood groups have been slow to take on the task themselves.
For one thing, coyote trapping can be an expensive business, Lambers said. Trappers charge $1,000 or more for each coyote they collar.
It’s no wonder some cities have taken a more economical approach.
In Chattanooga, Tenn., for instance, it is illegal to fire a gun anywhere within the city limits — except’n to kill yourself a coyote.
But they are far more civilized in Leawood. No coyote shootings allowed. Trapping must be done in a humane manner, in live traps, and performed by a professional who holds “a valid Nuisance Wildlife Control Permit issued by the State of Kansas.”
The trap must be approved by the city, and there has to be a map supplied of the trapping area, and the trapping effort must not exceed 30 days.
The applicants have to spell out how they intend to dispatch said coyotes after humane entrapment, and there’s just a whole lot of rigmarole.
Still, that and the expense only partly explain why you don’t sense the same immediacy for coyote removal that you saw in the buildup to passage of the city ordinance last month.
Another reason might be that the coyotes are behaving themselves lately. They’re not laying low, mind you.
Mayor Peggy Dunn reported seeing one along Tomahawk Creek Parkway just last week.
But they’re no longer snacking on house pets and creating hysteria.
“We haven’t had any more attacks,” Lambers said Friday.
First, a rash of pets snatched from their own backyards by hungry coyotes. Then the council passes a trapping ordinance, then nothing?
Could it be that the coyote community keeps up with the news? Living where they do, perhaps some of that Leawood sophistication rubbed off on them and they recognized it was time to cool it.
Or it could be, as Lambers suggests, a function of the changing seasons. Spring brings out the best in many of us, but more important, it is a time of birth and rebirth.
His theory is that the coyotes aren’t as interested in dogs and house cats as they were in the fall and winter. Not when there are so many cute little bunnies in the yards, and the fluffy goslings are so numerous around ponds and lakes this time of year.
In short, nature provides a happy balance, when you consider that the bunnies grow up to be flea-bitten rabbits that plunder your garden and the goslings turn into cranky geese whose poop slimes acres of parkland and seemingly miles of sidewalks.
So Leawood residents ought to think twice before setting out their coyote traps. Keep their pets indoors, and let the great circle of life work its magic.
But if after careful consideration they still want to trap coyotes, could they do me a favor?
For some reason, the foxes out my way have fallen down on the job, and the cute little squirrels are frolicking far too freely.
A coyote or two might help to reduce the surplus population.
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