Coyote warning signs have arrived and Seal Beach staff is working on selecting the places where they will be posted.
City Manager Jill Ingram gave the news to the Monday, May 12, City Council meeting. Sean Crumby, director of Public Works, said staff was working with the Seal Beach Police Department and Long Beach Animal Care Services to get the signs out.
Long Beach ACS provides Seal Beach with animal control services.
District Five Councilman Michael Levitt, jokingly suggested placing the signs where coyotes can read them. Levitt represents Leisure World on the council.
During the council comments segment of the meeting, Levitt said Leisure World had a tremendous problem with coyotes.
He said city staff was working with Orange County Flood Control personnel, and would possibly work with Naval Weapons Station personnel, to resolve the problem.
(For more information about Leisure World’s coyote problem, visit www.sunnews.org/latest-news/coyotes-said-to-be-safety-threat-in-leisure-world/.)
District Two Councilman David Sloan, who represents Leisure World and College Park West, had an excused absence from Monday’s council meeting.
Mayor Ellery Deaton, who represents District Three (Old Town and Surfside), said she believed that solving Leisure World’s coyote problem would also solve the problem of coyotes overflowing into Old Town.
Coyote sightings and other statistics
There were 30 coyote sightings in Seal Beach reported to animal control from Oct. 1, 2013, to April 30, 2014, according to statistics provided by Ted Stevens, manager of Long Beach ACS. The average response time to the coyote citings was 41 seconds. the maximim response time was 3 minutes 41 seconds.
There were four confirmed coyote attacks on pets reported during the same six-month period.
The average response time: 2 minutes 7 seconds. Maximum response time: 3 minutes 47 seconds. Minimum: 37 seconds. There were two suspected coyote attacks. Response times ranged from 2 minutes 40 seconds to 6 minutes 51 seconds.
There was one reported instance of coyote stalking. Response time: 48 seconds.
Stevens recently said ACS would respond if a coyote was in an area that people would normally be in, such as a porch. He said there was little animal control could do about a coyote walking down the street.
“It’s pretty difficult to catcha healthy coyote,” Stevens said.
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