Coyotes can be spotted outside a CVS or just walking down a residential road in East Lyme.
For folks who frequent and live in East Lyme and the surrounding areas, coyote sightings have become a normal occurrence, with town hall officials telling NBC Connecticut they’ve received more calls from concerned residents about the creatures this year than ever before.
First Selectman Kevin Seery said his office and the police department have received messages from residents who have lost pets or small animals to coyotes, but so far there have been no reports of the coyotes showing aggressive behavior towards humans.
But not everyone is happy to see the wildlife strolling through the area.
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"We just had a reassessment, taxes went up tremendously and so you’re paying an awful lot of money to be kind of nervous in your yard, and I don’t know what you can do about it," Jacqueline York, of Niantic, said.
Rebecca Bayreuther Donohue, who lives right up the street said, "They keep to themselves, they run whenever they see humans, so I feel like that’s a responsible and natural behavior. Obviously we don’t feed them or encourage them. We don’t feel threatened by them, I mean, we are within five miles of a nature preserve. So it’s logical they’re gonna be around."
Seery said the town is going to have a presentation later on this month where the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is going to come and hopefully give some ideas.
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"The one thing we hate to do is if you do trap them, the only option is to euthanize them at that point in time and we rather not do that," Seery said.
The first selectmen said he's continuing to advise people to be vigilant and to report the sightings to police, as that does make a difference.
DEEP will host a meeting on July 28 for residents in the area to discuss more preventative measures.
