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Fort Wright Mayor Dave Hatter: Coyotes spotted; here are ‘best practices’ for residents to deal with them


We have recently been receiving notifications regarding the presence of coyotes in the area, in particular near Amsterdam Road, Park Road and George Huser Drive. 
 
While The City of Fort Wright does contract with Kenton County for Animal Control Services in our community, these animal control officers are not trained or equipped to deal with wild animals, including coyotes.

Likewise, our police officers will respond if called to investigate a coyote sighting but they are not trained  or equipped to deal with wild animals either. In an emergency situation officers may be able to eliminate coyotes with use of their firearm, but that is truly a last resort option to be deployed in a true emergency. 
 

With the above constraints in mind, I wanted to share with you some “best practices” for dealing with this issue. Fortunately, coyotes are by nature timid animals and will normally retreat from humans.  However, that is not always the case and they may attack pets. Please take a look at the following link (http://www.coyotesmarts.org ) for a guide on how to deal with a coyote. 
 
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife provides a list of Wildlife Nuisance Control officers in the area on their website .

Should you have a coyote or other wildlife nuisance issue that requires trained professional individuals/companies, those on the Fish and Wildlife list are the best option for resolving the it.
 
If you have any further questions or concerns regarding this issue please contact myself or our city Administrator, Ed Butler, at 859-331-1700 or via e-mail at ebutler@fortwright.com.

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You may also be interested in the NKyTribune’s story about coyotes by Gayle Pille.
 


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