West Metairie has visitors.
Residents of a west Metairie neighborhood say coyotes are terrorizing their block. Darlene Villere’s home surveillance shows coyotes coming out and surrounding her front yard, on Haring Road. The coyotes then team up and attack her feral cats, and carry one of them away. “Two coyotes came up the other night and grabbed all three of them and killed them,” Villere said. “I found a half of one of them in the next block,” she said. “My neighbors said they saw one of the cats, and I went down there. That was half a baby, so I picked her up and brought her back home and buried her in my backyard.” Villere says she’s lived in her house for 21 years and not once seen a coyote, until this week.
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Killing is not the answer.
Michelle Brignac, Jefferson Parish’s director of protection and animal welfare services, said the government received a call about the coyotes. “Killing the coyotes is not the answer, and they can’t be relocated,” Brignac said. “Ecological disruption is an issue which continues to happen. … If we kill the coyote off, the prey animals will take over. WWL-TV was told there have also been sightings of coyotes at the Cenacle Retreat Center 1½ miles from Villere’s house. Joe Andrade, a nuisance wildlife control operator, says coyotes have been caught in the area looking for food, and they carry disease. “A rabies vector species, meaning they could carry rabies yet they don’t show any signs, no foaming at the mouth … parvo, distemper,” Andrade said. Villere said she just wants the animals out of her neighborhood. “You hurt my baby, like you hurt my child — I’m going to hurt you. You hurt my babies — I’m going to hurt them.”
Feral cats can be a problem too.