are mostly retired, but hardly retiring.
The Rossmoor Predator Management Team seems to have the energy of a posse from the Old West, springing into action before, during and after a pet goes missing or a coyote is seen on the prowl in the quaint neighborhood.
The team is comprised of Rossmoor residents connected by e-mail and constantly on the lookout for danger from coyotes or searching for missing pets before the sun goes down and the nocturnal wild hunters come out and prey on domesticated animals affectionately known as pets.
Three of the founding members, Dave and Rebecca Lara, 30-year Rossmoor residents and Ron Singer visited with Sun recently to discuss the non-profit group of neighbors who have rallied against the perceived threat of coyotes and other wild creature encroaching into the area.
“We have been at this since April of 2010 and we now have 500 members,” Rebecca Lara said proudly.
Lara said she and her husband were settling into their golden years after a lifetime of hard work when they noticed what seemed liked an unusually high number of lost pet signs.
“When we had two neighbors lose dogs and saw the signs around the neighborhood, we began to wonder why there were so many of these signs up,” Dave Lara said.
After doing some investigating and talking with neighbors, they began to realize that many pets were being lost to coyote attacks. The Laras were also pet owners and sympathized with the plight of the pet owners who had either lost their pets and never saw them again, or actually found the remains of their pet’s carcass.
They became convinced that there was a major problem that needed to be addressed.
With the help of people like Singer they began building their communication network and contacting anyone who could help combat what the group saw as a growing coyote population near the residential area.
The Laras give a lot of the credit for getting the group up and running to Singer, who was able to enlist the help of others.
“He knows everyone in the community and was able to alert everyone to what was happening in our community,” Rebecca Lara said.
The Laras said that Rossmoor resident Cathie Williams has also contributed a lot of effort and time to the cause.
The group grew rapidly as pet owners or former ones who had lost their four-legged best friends rallied to the cause. It helped that the group began to have a lot of success in reuniting lost pets with their human families.
They also became adept at enlisting the local and national media in their efforts. Rebecca Lara recently reported that the Discovery Channel had recently approached her for a possible segment on the group and its efforts.
Despite the coyote as the apparent perpetrator of many pet deaths in Rossmoor, the Laras say they are not blaming “Mother Nature,” for the plight of the pets.
“We are not anti-coyote,” Rebecca Lara said. “Coyotes are beautiful creatures. They are majestic.”
She noted that Predator Management Team members have reported witnessing coyotes leap fences from 6 to 8 feet high. The ability has apparently come in handy for coyotes to make a quick escape when they are discovered prowling for a fresh dog or cat to take out.
The group’s position is that a growing coyote population should be prevented from encroaching on the residential area. To that end, the group has tracked apparent coyote attacks through reports of missing pets and a body count added up by the number of torn up pet carcasses that are found.
“The final solution in my opinion is for us and the Rossmoor Homeowners Association working diligently and jointly to suppress coyotes in Rossmoor,” Rebecca Lara said.
“We are a group of neighbors looking out for one another,” Dave Lara said.
Singer said the project has had some positive spin-off results.
“What has happened is that neighbors who live three or four houses away from each other had never met and now they have come together and found out that they like each other,” he said.
For more information on the Rossmoor Predator Management Team, send an e-mail to REBTRAVIS@aol.com.
