technically if you can prove that the animal was a danger to yourself or your livestock you have a legal right to protect yourself. It has been defended in federal courts.From what I gather, Marion County is a no fire zone. You cannot discharge a firearm within the city limits, unless it's at a range. But, if you have a hungry rabid Coyote trying to take your ass down, I'd rather defend myself/dog/family and worry about the consequences later.
Coyotes kill for sustenance and survival, they do not kill for "blood sport" leaving their prey mauled and mutilated. That is the work of wild dogs or coy-dogs. Coy- dogs are not likely the offspring of a female coyote because they cull their litters for weak, sick, and "different" kits. Also, if the female can not nurture all of the kits, or if the number of her teats doesn't match the number of kits she will kill the lesser of the kits. The male coyotes will systematically kill any coy-dog offspring.
Males coyotes will mate with female domestic breeds as well as it may be possible for domestic males to breed with female coyotes, but the latter isn't as likely to happen because the males in the coyote local community will kill male dogs that intrude into their community. A community is made up of several families or clans. They live in fairly close proximity but do not coexist (eat, sleep and den) as do wolf packs. They do hunt together in semi-social way as I explain later.
We found a pregnant female Doberman in the woods that had been bred by a coyote. She had two offspring that closely resembled the coyote and had similar psychological traits and habits of a coyote. They grew to be 55 and 60 pounds when they were reached maturity.
Coyotes, wolves, and dogs are all members of the same family, canis, or the grey wolf family. Breeding between them would be within the breed, not interbreeding.
Coy-wolves are also possible. The red wolf after a study of its mitochondrial DNA has been scientifically determined to a grey wolf/coyote mix.
In Indiana, coyotes hunt in pairs and singularly at times. The hunt is called to order in the evening by the clan elders and the young are collected to their den families. They call out to each other much like wolves, identifying each clan that is part of the community. They also do this just before attaking domestic pets, especially dogs confined in a yard, remaining congegate.
When the hunt for food commences, individual hunting pairs disperse and spread out. The hunt continues through out the nighttime until the daylight morning hours, depending on the success of the individual pairs or singles. Sometimes the unsuccessful regroup at watering holes and restart their hunts in other areas. You can hear their "call to hunt" messages throughout the night, followed by long periods of silence, when the hunt is in progress.
A healthy coyote breeding pair can be responsible for up to 4000 other coyotes down stream in their breeding lifetimes. Other factors such as disease, accidents, droughts, floods, and natural demise due to conflicts with other species such as mountain lions and wolves reduce these numbers considerably, however the proliferation of the species in the last decade suggests they are still being very successful.
The things I have listed above are based on true, "boots and pants in the mud" logged, observations, over a period of forty years.
Incidentally, a number of years ago, I spotted a coyote in my front yard that had come around my garage. I suspected it was trying to catch one of our cats. It had in fact eaten all of the cats food. It stopped momentarily in the front yard and I noticed it had a collar on it. I thought is might be someone's "pet" so I didn't shoot it.
As an after thought, I wished I had shot it because it just seemed absolutely reckless for a person to have a coyote as a pet and allow it to run loose, given the knowledge I had of them. Several weeks later I saw it again and brought it down with my scoped 30-30 rifle at over 100 yards, in the woods.
It did indeed have a collar, with an identification tag on it from the ArizonaGame and FishDepartment and a serial number. This was before radio collars and ID chips. The tag was pretty corroded but I called the number I thought I had made out on it, but the call could not be placed. I looked up their number through information and finally got through to them but was placed on hold. When someone answered, I was informed that the person in charge was out and would return my call, which I waited on for days, but it never happened.
That coyote had migrated all the way to Southern Indiana from Arizona. I felt kind of bad about killing an animal that had made such a noble and difficult journey across the country, a judgment call I would have made differently if I had known.
I have nothing much to add that has not already been said....
In short I am a Officer for Indianpolis Public Safety ACCD. There are coyotes all over this city, coy dogs are common and we have had on more then one occasion Wof Hybrids at the shelter.
This city is over run with feral dogs and they are packing up more and more. The very fact that this city also has a problem with Dog Fighting does not help this issue. The "owners" disgard the loosers and they simply add to the problem.
I suggest that if anyone with in the city limits has problems with roaming dogs, stray dogs and or packs to give us a call and we will do our best to tackle the situation....
Why are people so afraid/worried abot wolves and cougars? Since 1492 there are only about 16 recorded deaths from cougars, and two of those were from rabies. I doubt that many people have been killed by wolves either.
Wolves? This thread started out about coyotes in Franklin township.