For decades, coyotes have been our increasingly “neighbors” throughout Los Angeles County. And, what was once an underground society, has now solidified itself as a community of wild residents inhabiting Southern California communities.
Coyotes have called dens around the county home since the Ice Age, but as humans colonized areas, creating industrial areas, their homes became the outskirts of community parks or beneath sheds in a backyard.
While most wildlife would vacate their homes in the wake of human interruption, coyotes are one of the most “adaptable” mammals to exist, according to wildlife researchers. So, instead of running for the hills, coyotes hid – using flood channels, easements, train tracks and alleys to make their way through cities and suburban areas. This has resulted in what is known as an “urban coyote,” which over the years, has developed different behaviors, diets and genetic markers from their rural counterparts.
Because of their sleuth-like nature, coyotes are incredibly difficult to track, but the California Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that for decades, there has been a consistent population of between 250,000 and 750,000 animals throughout the state.
About 10 years ago, however, the four-legged Los Angeles County residents began making their presence known. Encounters began to change from seeing a coyote wandering in the distance, to people seeing them lounging on front lawns and digging through trash.
Then, in 2015, attacks on humans and pets began to escalate with at least 12 reported human bite incidents in that year alone, according to media reports, involving joggers, children and adults resting outdoors.
While the California Department of Fish and Wildlife will trap and kill any coyote that attacks a human, cities within the county began to panic and decided to take matters into their own hands, creating coyote management plans that included the preventative trapping and euthanizing coyotes.
But, cities have changed course over the past decade – to the glee of many animal rights groups – focusing on education and “co-existing.”
The ‘war on wildlife’ has ended
On Tuesday, Sept. 15, the City of Torrance logged a milestone, becoming the last city in L.A. County to scrap their trap-and-kill program, according to officials.
“After years of a cruel and ineffective trapping program in Torrance, a much more enlightened and fact-focused City Council voted to stop the expensive program,” PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange said in a written statement. “Dozens of America’s Song Dogs endured terrifying snaring only to be thrown into a chamber and gassed to death by a trapper who flouted the law. Torrance’s war on wildlife has finally ended.”
Torrance added a year-round “coyote abatement program” in 2019, which contracted a coyote trapping service to trap and euthanize any coyote that wanders into the area. Between 2019 and 2025, 144 coyotes were killed, according to a city staff report written by Brent Rivas, community services administrative analyst.
The trap-and-kill system, however, is not yielding the results expected, city officials said. For years, the city has been trapping coyotes at two locations – the Torrance Airport and the Madrona Marsh sump, but coyote sightings have remained stable throughout the city.
“An important thing to note is that we’re seeing a similar amount of sightings throughout the city, not just in areas that haven’t been served by the trapping program,” Councilmember David Kartsonis said in a written statement. “All of our residents deserve city services and this council believes that altering our strategy to manage our coyote interactions citywide through education and through enforcement will provide a much better outcome than arbitrary year-round trapping in a very small specific part of our city.”
In fact, researchers have found that trapping and killing coyotes can cause a “rebound effect” and actually increase the population in that area.
“Research suggests that when coyote populations are controlled aggressively, the remaining coyotes often experience a reproductive boom by breeding at earlier ages, having larger litters and experiencing a higher survival rate among the young,” according to a report by the Humane Society of the United States. “Therefore, coyote populations bounce back quickly, even when up to 70% of their numbers are removed.
“It’s nearly impossible to completely eradicate coyotes from an area,” the report added. “Despite bounties and large-scale efforts to kill coyotes over the last 100 years, coyotes have in fact expanded their range throughout the U.S. and Canada tremendously. One study even found that killing 75% of a coyote population every year for 50 years would still not exterminate the population.”
The habitualization of coyotes
Instead, Torrance – and the rest of L.A. County – now encourages residents to take precautionary measures by not feeding coyotes, whether intentionally or not, removing standing water from outside, staying with pets or small children when outside and beginning “hazing” when encountering a coyote.
Ted Stevens, the current Torrance community services director, has had extensive experience crafting coyote management plans for cities throughout L.A. County, and said that urban coyotes’ learned comfortability around humans is what brought them out of hiding in the first place.
“They’ve been in heavily populated areas for decades now,” Stevens said. “Whether or not people have seen them, they’ve been around. Coyotes are very adaptable and they’ve been able to adapt to living in an urban environment and even thrive.”
A 2020 study by the National Park Service and Cal State Northridge found that human garbage, food scraps, ornamental fruits and domestic cats made up nearly 75% of the diets of urban coyotes living in Westlake, Culver City, Baldwin Hills, Silver Lake, the San Fernando Valley, Beverly Hills and Marina del Rey.
“What this study shows us is that coyotes in Los Angeles’ urban areas are taking advantage of food sources that we don’t secure,” Justin Brown, the lead researcher on the project for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a written statement. “Whether it’s cats, fruits or garbage, the food resources that we have left out for them is why coyotes hang around. We do have some control over coyotes being here and it’s all tied to us. If we don’t provide the food sources in our neighborhoods, they would not be living in them.”
In addition to making sure food and water is unavailable to coyotes, Stevens said that hazing is important so that urban coyotes will see humans as a threat, not a food source. Hazing entails the immediate use of deterrents to move a coyote out of the area or discourage aggressive behavior. This includes making loud noises, spraying water, shining bright lights, throwing objects near the coyote and shouting.
“I encourage everyone to learn as much as they can and get educated as much as they can on coyotes because the more you know, the less scary it is,” Stevens said. “My wife is not a large person. She’s 5’ 2”, but she successfully hazes coyotes right out of our front yard. It’s just a matter of your attitude and being educated.”
Some residents, however, disagree; including former councilmember and current Torrance City Treasurer Aurelio Mattucci, who led the effort to begin the trap-and-kill program in 2019.
“Torrance will no longer Trap Coyotes in an effort to protect our loved ones, instead they will focus on handing out brochures on how to ‘Co-EXIST,’” Mattucci said in a Facebook post. “This is something that I worked on for many months back in 2018. Please keep your pets indoors and don’t allow your children to play outside unattended. Coyotes will grow in numbers faster than ever before. Coyotes will attack and kill.”
Torrance’s decision comes on the heels of a string of attacks earlier this year in the neighboring city of Carson. One coyote – who has since been tracked down and euthanized – was responsible for attacks on young children in both February and April of this year. It was also discovered that this same coyote attacked a 31-year-old woman in Gardena in March.
Other recent South Bay coyote attacks include a young child being bitten and scratched at the Dignity Health Sports Park area in Carson in March, and in Aug. 2025, a six-year-old was attacked and bitten multiple times by a different coyote during a youth softball tournament at Del Amo Park.
While the South Bay’s sprawling greenspace is prime real estate for coyotes, attacks have been cited throughout L.A. County.
In June 2021, a woman and her dog survived an attack by a pack of coyotes in Woodland Hills, according to CBS News.
In Dec. 2022, a two-year-old was attacked and nearly dragged away by a coyote in broad daylight in her family’s Woodland Hills driveway before her father chased the coyote away, according to NBC News.
In May 2023, a coyote entered another Woodland Hills home through a doggy door at 4 a.m., confronting a family cat before being startled away by a resident, according to KTLA.
In Sept. 2024, KTTV News reported that a security camera captured a coyote grabbing and attempting to drag away a small dog named Sammy in Shadow Hills before the owner intervened and scared the animal off.
Most recently, on Sept. 11, 2026, a small Pomeranian-mix dog named Toby was attacked and injured by a coyote in a residential backyard in Diamond Bar late at night, according to KTLA.
Torrance Mayor Sharon Kalani said that her family dog was a victim of a coyote attack. While her daughter was taking the dog into the backyard, a coyote scaled the fence and killed the dog while her daughter was hazing it.
“They are vicious,” Kalani said. “They are not nice animals and they are not afraid. But, there are people that love these killers so much, they will feed them and that is not acceptable.”
In light of these attacks, L.A. County residents and city officials remain united on one thing – coyotes have gotten too comfortable. In fact, a pack of coyotes has even taken up residence in an abandoned construction site in West Hollywood.
The partially built structure is now referred to by neighbors as the “coyote condo.”
The vacant residential project at Romaine St. and North Spaulding Ave. has been abandoned for three years after construction on the new 22-unit condominium building was halted in 2024. Now, the construction permits have expired and coyotes have moved in.
Some West Hollywood residents have called on the city to remove the coyotes, but legally, they cannot do anything. The State of California prohibits the trapping of coyotes on private property, meaning it would be up to the property owner to do something about it.
Legal roadblocks lead to managing coyotes
A possible solution for a property owner would be to hire a private coyote trapping service to trap and euthanize the animals since it is also illegal to relocate coyotes.
Only trappers permitted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are authorized to trap and kill coyotes. And, while there are dozens of properly permitted animal and pest control companies that offer coyote abatement services, it can cost property owners up to $900 per day.
Oftentimes, homeowners will take things into their own hands to shoo off coyotes when hazing does not work. An example of this was a Studio City coyote who had been shot in the face. The coyote was well-known throughout the neighborhood, nicknamed “Wendy” by residents.
Wendy was easily identified by her swollen and deformed snout, and after multiple sighting reports by residents, the non-profit Wildlife Care of Southern California eventually gained permission from the state to capture and treat Wendy.
It was discovered that she had two pellets lodged in her head, causing an infection that destroyed the upper jaw bone on the left side of her face.
“The extent of the damage was so severe that there was no surgery or treatment capable of restoring normal function,” Wildlife Care of Southern California said in a Facebook post, informing residents that Wendy had been euthanized.
In response to Wendy’s situation, the organization submitted a petition to the California Fish and Game Commission on Monday, Sept. 14, urging the commission to change current regulations so that permitted wildlife rehabilitation organizations can trap and treat injured coyotes.
Under current law, not only are wildlife rehabilitation agencies prohibited from capturing coyotes and taking them to a facility for treatment, any city or trapping agency also cannot bring the animal to an organization like Wildlife Care of Southern California to have the animal treated and returned to the wild.
“This is a statewide problem, not one limited to Wendy or Studio City,” the organization said in a Facebook post. “When an injured animal remains mobile, no qualified public agency is available or equipped to capture it. We are calling this campaign ‘Wendy’s Law’ in her honor. It is not yet an enacted law or regulation. It is our effort to ensure that the next injured wild animal — and the next concerned community — has a lawful path to qualified help.”
Other legal discourse includes a proposed senate bill currently sitting on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. SB 1135 would establish the California Wildlife Coexistence Act, creating state policy requiring an emphasis on the safe coexistence of humans and wildlife instead of leaving it up to the cities.
“Californians are seeing more wildlife entering our communities in search of food, water and habitat,” Sen. Catherine Blakespear, the bill sponsor, said in a written statement. “These encounters can threaten public safety, damage property and physically harm both people and wildlife. We know that proactive, non-lethal strategies, such as increasing public education and improving waste management, can prevent or temper these encounters.
“SB 1135 takes a practical, science-based approach by establishing a statewide Wildlife Coexistence Program that gives communities the tools they need to help prevent conflict before it happens,” she continued. “This bill will protect residents, support our agricultural communities and ensure California leads with smart, humane wildlife management.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that enforcing this program would cost approximately $28.1 million in FY 2027-28 and $23.2 million in FY 2028-29. The department had a similar program until 2024 when funding ran out.
“CDFW has experienced longstanding budget challenges despite repeated efforts over many years to address them,” according to the Senate Appropriations Committee. “CDFW’s service-based budgeting (SBB) analysis for FY 2023-24 indicates CDFW (including its species and habitat conservation program, where most of the tasks associated with human-wildlife coexistence are likely to be located) is funded for only one-third of its mandated program work.”
Although Torrance joined the rest of LA County in halting their trap-and-kill program, they will be reserving the $80,000 in case the council decides to bring the program back. The new coyote management program will also be re-evaluated in one year.
According to County of Los Angeles Animal Care and Control, residents should take the following steps to protect themselves and their pets from coyotes:
- Secure garbage can lids at all times or store garbage indoors.
- If feeding pets outdoors, they should be fed during daylight hours and all food and water should be removed before darkness.
- Ripe fruits and vegetables should be covered at night or the garden and fruit trees should be enclosed by a coyote-proof fence.
- Cats and small dogs should not be left out after dark unless enclosed in a coyote-proof enclosure. Coyotes have been known to scale a typical backyard fence, so specific measures must be taken to prevent coyotes from entering backyards.
- Residents should never leave food out for a coyote. It is prohibited by California state law.
- Brush and vegetation should be cleared from backyards and adjacent areas to eliminate habitat for prey.
- During the time of the year when adult coyotes are caring for young (May-September), they can be very aggressive when their young are threatened. Domestic dogs are especially vulnerable to attack during this time. Even dogs on leashes have been attacked when they got too close to a family of coyotes. In urban settings where a den site has been identified, caution should be taken to keep dogs out of the area.
- Any small dogs or cats should never be left unattended outdoors and should be secured by a leash when going for walks.
Stevens said that even if residents have not seen a coyote in their neighborhood, they are likely nearby keeping a low profile, so all residents of LA County, unless in a major metropolitan area like Downtown LA, should heed this advice.