LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Southern Nevada has been home to coyotes long before Las Vegas became a major city and with neighborhoods now spanning to every edge of the valley, coyote territory continues to shrink.
One older Henderson neighborhood surrounded by major new homes developments is now seeing more coyotes than ever before. FOX5 went there and talked to homeowners who have lived in Calico Ridge for more than two decades on why they are just now attempting to coyote proof their backyards.
Gail Smith is a lifetime dog lover. Smith’s home is decorated with schnauzer decor. Her dog Roxy is never more than a few steps behind her but in July, it was her other dog Belle that was snatched by a coyote from her backyard. The dog’s remains were found in a neighbor’s yard later that day.
“Twelve days later, Roxy had gone out the dog door, come out in the backyard and she screamed, and I chased off a coyote as she ran into the house,” Smith recounted.
Roxy had puncture wounds all over her body but survived. Until that attack, Smith had never seen a coyote in her yard and rarely in the neighborhood. At first, Smith thought Belle may have just gotten out of the yard somehow.
Smith then realized the danger in her own backyard and set up a makeshift dog pen only accessible from the dog door and got estimates on coyote rollers for her fence. Ultimately, she paid $15,000 so every inch of the property’s block wall is blocked with wrought iron fencing, spikes on top. Smith was willing to pay and do whatever it takes to protect her fur babies.
“They probably think well there was easy pickings here before, maybe I can find another meal,” Smith shared about a coyote’s possible return.
“We heard a screaming sound and I came out and I saw the coyote standing on top of my wall,” explained Smith’s next-door neighbor Henry Uechi. Uechi ran to confront the coyote when Roxy was attacked as his dogs were out in his yard.
“Was it growling at you?,” FOX5’s Kim Passoth asked Uechi. “Yeah kind of… it was kind scary,” Uechi revealed.
Uechi also put up new fencing. In bushes which line his front yard, he’s even woven in a net.
“I put chicken wire so that it is hidden so that the coyote can’t jump over this fence right here,” Uechi described. Monday morning, a home security camera captured a coyote in Uechi’s front yard.
The Nevada Department of Wildlife told FOX5, two coyotes were removed from the area last month. They say they are not currently surveilling any specific areas of the valley for coyote activity.
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