Residents Fed Up With Coyotes

They fear one of their neighbors is contributing to the problem by leaving food in his yard.

A Southington man says he's just feeding the birds, but his neighbors say he's doing much more than that. They claim he's attracting coyotes.

Residents in the Lawncrest Drive area of Southington said they're seeing coyotes walk through the yards and streets of their neighborhood on a daily basis and believe one of their fellow neighbors, Bill Queen, is attracting them by throwing food scraps on the ground in his yard.

"My neighbor likes to throw food on the ground. Whether or not he knows he's feeding these animals, he is," Mike Lauzier said.

Queen said he's not putting food on the ground. Instead, he said it's going up in the trees.

"Well, I feed my birds all the time. I always do," Queen said.

Neighbors said he's feeding more than birds and they've seen all kinds of animals in Queen's backyard.

"It's attracting everything -- turkey vultures. It's attracting red tail hawks," Hank Simmons said.

"All kinds of little rodents now, including the rats," Lausier said.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection warns against leaving food out for any animals.

"The surest way to lead to an animal becoming a problem and ultimately needing to be dispatched, in many cases, is by habituating them to humans," said Rick Jacobson, the director of the DEEP's Wildlife Division. "So if you care for wildlife, one of the worst things you can do is feed them at your home."

Queen said he hasn't seen any coyotes or other wild animals lurking around.

"No, I haven't seen nothing here. Nothing at all," Queen said.

Neighbors in the area hope the coyote problem goes away.

"Unfortunately, it looks like we're stuck with this," Lausier said.

Some of the neighbors have complained to the town's animal control department but said they've been told there's nothing they can do. 

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