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Wildlife Conflicts in the Press

 

This is a partial list of stories in recent years that have made it into newspaper print and a snapshot of conflicts occurring throughout Massachusetts.  It illustrates that societal conflicts with wildlife are very real and not just an abstract possibility.  These stories underscore the fundamental need for a balanced, responsible approach to wildlife management from both societal and ecological perspectives that incorporate proactive lethal and non-lethal approaches.  They give a glimpse into what's really happening on the ground.  These stories are not posted here to ignite public fears, but to highlight that a multi-dimensional, scientifically based management approach concerning our furbearers is critical for the continued long-term positive co-existence with wildlife.  Highly regulated furbearer harvests, using the best available tools currently banned or extremely restricted may not solve all these issues, but it is surely a critical missing component in dealing with and reducing conflicts. 

The list will be updated as additional stories come to our attention and as time allows to post them....  If you know of a recent, relative story and the source, please let us know via the "feedback" form.  The CRWM is compiling an ongoing database of wildlife conflicts, and your help in building this list is greatly appreciated.

Raccoon, which scratched person in the area of Heritage State Park and Holyoke Children's Museum, tests positive for rabies

Holyoke, MA - January 21, 2010

 

Dog killed in Hampden coyote attack
Hampden, MA -  October 28, 2009

 

Coyotes Kill Woman on Hike in Canadian Park
Nova Scotia, Canada - October 28, 2009 (not in MA, but relevant and hits home to our issues here)

 

Beaver fever found in spring  
 Affecting Hancock, Pittsfield MA residents - October 3, 2009

 

Lawrence, 2 pesky beavers wage war - Dam near roadway at heart of battle

Lawrence, MA - September 29, 2009

 

Gloucester Man Links Water Woes To Broken Dam
Gloucester, MA - September 3, 2009

Coyotes terrorize Dartmouth neighborhood
Dartmouth, MA. September 03, 2009

Foxes spotted off Highland Avenue
Salem, MA. September 01, 2009

Flooding raises health concerns
West Newburyport, MA. August 26, 2009

Lawrence police kill fox that bit man. Victim awaits results of rabies tests
Lawrence, MA. August 26, 2009

Dartmouth coyote attack brings attention to predator population
Dartmouth, MA. August 17, 2009

'Lucky' Jasper the cat survives coyote attack Family warns 'it can happen to anyone'
Andover, MA. August 13, 2009

Attacking fox is killed after 2 people bitten in Whitman
Whitman, MA. August 11, 2009

Rabid Skunk attacks Norfolk man
Norfolk, MA. July 30, 2009

Fox attack leaves Edgewood residents edgy
Bridgewater, MA. July, 29, 2009

Raynham family shocked after coyote attack leaves pet cat clinging to life
Raynham, MA. July 27, 2009

Fox attacks shake up Brockton neighborhood
Brockton, MA. July 23, 2009

Coyotes strike again; cat killed in Georgetown
Georgetown, MA. July 21, 2009

MA: Coyotes stalk woman, kill dog at Georgetown/Rowley State Forest
Georgetown, MA. July 20, 2009

South Hadley officials hope to resolve flooding problems at Ledges Golf Club without killing beavers
South Hadley, MA. July 17, 2009

 

Busy beavers adding to soppiness of the season
Statewide story, MA July 09, 2009

 

Police warn of coyotes after small dog is killed
Georgetown, MA.  July 16, 2009


Earlier fox bite reported nearby, Unclear if attack was same animal
Worcester, MA. July 2, 2009

Beaver Dams Cause Flood Problems In Mass. Towns
General story Boston WBZ38, June 16, 2009

Haverhill woman says she was surrounded by coyotes
Haverhill, MA. June 11, 2009

Return of the Once-Rare Beaver? Not in My Yard
Concord, MA. June 8, 2009 (New York Times story)

Rise in beaver population after trapping ban leads to flooded property
Holliston, MA. June 07, 2009

Milford beaver dam breaks causing flash floods
Milford, MA. June 2, 2009

Coyote Forces 2 Logan Runways To Briefly Close, Coyote Killed By Truck
Boston, MA. May 6, 2009

Vicious attack of dog in Middleboro brings attention to seasonal suburban threat
Middleboro, MA. May 4, 2009

Beaver Damage on the Mend and More!
West Boylston, MA. August 28, 2009

A Weymouth neighborhood is on edge after a family dog in one neighborhood barely survived a coyote attack.
Weymouth, MA. April 20, 2009

Raynham coyote attacks finally prompt recourse
Raynham, MA. February 27, 2009

Saving Charro from coyotes Attack on 65-pound Essex greyhound stuns owners
Essex, MA. February 17, 2009

Coyotes reportedly kill small dog in Milford [MA]
Milford, MA. February 8, 2009

Rabid fox attacks man
Milford, MA. January 29, 2009

Beaver dam flood woes hard to ignore
Lexington, MA. January 25, 2009

Emergency permit targets beavers in Holliston
Holliston, MA. December 26, 2008

Officer says he thwarted coyote's attack on woman
Beverly MA. November 27, 2008

Wild Animal Frightens Neighborhood
Springfield MA. November 16, 2008

The fishers are coming - or so they say.
General interest story. October 16, 2008

Leave it to Beavers
Bolton MA. October 13, 2008

 

Increase in beaver population linked to loosestrife spread
Massachusetts Statewide issue. September 18, 2008

 

6-foot-tall beaver dams breaks, sends 'wave of mud downstream'
Colrain MA. September 15, 2008

Charlton, MA resident asks for help with beaver damage
Charlton MA. September 10, 2008

Coyotes kill five cats
Weymouth MA. August 13, 2008

Coyotes Attack Expensive Animals in Westfield
Westfield MA. July 21, 2008

Rabid raccoon goes down with fight
Shrewsbury MA. July 31, 2008

Rabid fox bites 10-year-old girl
Pittsfield MA. July 16, 2008

Health board tackles beaver dam issues
Acton MA. April, 30,2008

Shock, awe at coyotes in the city
Medford MA. April 20, 2008

 

Coyotes on the prowl in Medford

Medford MA. April 11, 2008

 

Scotland Road resident warns pet owners after coyote attack
Newbury, MA - April 03, 2008

 

Trapped! Towns losing the war against beavers. OUR CHANGING WORLD
Westboro MA. March 31, 2008

Beaver problems continue to plague Miles River
Ipswich MA. February 20, 2008

City howling over coyotes
Worcester MA. January 16, 2008

Red tape may seal beavers' fate
Holliston MA. November 9, 2008

Fox attack in Chelmsford
Chelmsford MA. September 16, 2007

Coyotes attacks 11-pound dog
Waltham MA. September 13, 2007

 

Beavers, not humans, ruin Puffer's Pond
Pelham MA. August 17, 2007

 

Family dog kills rabid fox in his yard
Holliston MA. July 3, 2007

Beavers too eager for them
Andover MA. June 28, 2007

 

Town grapples with big hazard: beavers
Templeton MA. July 19, 2007

 

Beaver dams causing problems
Sherborn MA. June 12, 2007

Beaver damage could be pricey for Sherborn
Sherborn MA. June 12, 2007

 

Coyotes maul, kill family pet
Newton, MA - March 28, 2007

 

Bradford woman warns her neighbors to keep pets inside
Haverhill MA April, 20, 2007


A coyote attacks in Weymouth and kills a dog
Weymouth MA. May 14, 2007

Beavers elude death again
Holliston MA. November 7, 2007

Coyote attack: Wild canines kill small dog. Keep close watch on pets if coyotes are nearby, experts say

Hingham MA. September 8, 2007

 

Beaver takes revenge on town
Phillipston MA. June 29, 2007

MassWildlife Advisory: Coyotes Incidents in Massachusetts
General Article. February 2, 2007

 

East Harwich couple mourns dog lost to coyote

East Harwich MA. May 24, 2006

 

Hiker Describes Coyote Attack - Man Fights Off Animal With Mace
Royalston MA. April 20, 2006


Dog Recovering After Coyote Attack
Boston MA. December 19, 2005

Coyote in attack was rabid, state says Northborough man, 76, was bitten multiple times
Northborough MA. April, 2005

Dog is killed by coyote in Boston yard
Boston MA. May 3, 2005

Coyote attacks off-duty Police officer and daughter
Wilmington MA. April 25, 2005

Rabid coyote attacks Cape Cod woman
Barnstable MA. February 18, 2005

Saugus residents howl about town's coyote sightings
Saugus MA. July 14, 2005

Coyote bites country club security guard in Mashpee
Mashpee MA. July 12, 2005

Sterling may offer preview of problem
Sterling MA. 2005

Dog is killed by coyote in Boston yard
Boston MA. May 3, 2005

Main Street Beaver Situation
Bolton MA. April 7, 2005

What about the Beavers? To trap, or not to trap: Question lingers in light of beaver problems
General Article. December 30, 2004

"Nature's Engineers"
General Article. November 24, 2004 - National Geographic

Cat seriously injured after evading coyote; Attacks on household pets are particularly common in spring, state expert says
Quincy MA April 30, 2004

 

GNAWING PROBLEM DOGS BOLTON MAN BEAVERS' DAMS FLOOD HIS YARD
Bolton MA. November 20, 2003

 

Police officer kills fox following attack; Animal forced woman onto car hood
Abington MA. April 3, 2003

 

Coyote snatches, kills dog; Official says cats are missing, too
Hull MANovember 15, 2002

 

Coyote attacks

Weymouth MA.  September 5, 2002

 

Pet dog dies after attack by coyotes
Duxbury MA. July 24, 2002

 

Beavers driving Ipswich batty
Ipswich MA. December 31, 2001

Coyote attacks a child; first time in State
Sandwich MA. July 31, 1998
 

a few issue in NJ..
Dog recovers after coyote attack
Rouge River Valley, NJ. May 17, 2007

Youth Foils Coyote Attack on Boy in N.J.
Middle Township NJ. April 12, 2007

 

Raccoon, which scratched person in the area of Heritage State Park and Holyoke Children's Museum, tests positive for rabies    (back to top)
By George Graham, The Republican story
January 21, 2010, 1:50PM

HOLYOKE, MA A person, scratched by a rabid raccoon in the area of Heritage State Park and the Holyoke Children's Museum on Monday, is now undergoing treatment for the disease. Animal Control Officer Donald W. Tryon said the raccoon was aggressive and went after the victim. Tryon said it also pursued him when he arrived on the scene. I knew there was something wrong, Tryon said. It had ample opportunity to retreat. The park is on Appleton Street and the museum is on the corner of Dwight and Front streets.  Anyone who has recently been scratched, bitten or had contact with saliva from a raccoon in this area should call their health care provider, the Holyoke Board of Health at (413) 322-5595, or the state Division of Epidemiology at (617) 983-6800.   Those with pets who may have recent contact with a raccoon in the area should call their veterinarian or the Division of Animal Health at (617) 626-1786.   Treatment for those exposed should begin as soon as possible.

 

Dog killed in Hampden coyote attack    (back to top)
ABC 40/FOX6 Springfield - Caitlin Penndorf
Hampden MA. Oct 28, 2009

HAMPDEN, Mass. (WGGB) -- A Hampden resident has reported to police that a coyote severely attacked her dog Tuesday afternoon, according to Chief Jeff W. Farnsworth. The resident, who lives on Oak Knoll Drive, reported she heard her four-month-old Bassett Hound yelping in her yard. Upon further inspection, she found her dog was pinned underneath a full grown coyote, according to officials.  A guest at the home kicked the coyote, leading it to flee into the woods, according to reports. The Bassett Hound was taken to the Boston Road Animal Hospital where it died of injuries from the attack, according to Farnsworth.  Hampden police and the Environmental police investigated the area but were unable to find the coyote. Police warn residents to be alert when out walking their animals and to not leave small pets unattended in the yard.

 

Coyotes Kill Woman on Hike in Canadian Park   (back to top)
AP - Associated Press
The New York Times - October 28, 2009

Nova Scotia, Canada - Two coyotes attacked a promising young musician as she was hiking alone in a national park in eastern Canada, and authorities said she died Wednesday of her injuries. The victim was identified as Taylor Mitchell, 19, a singer-songwriter from Toronto who was touring her new album on the East Coast.  She was hiking solo on a trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia on Tuesday when the attack occurred. She was airlifted to a Halifax hospital in critical condition and died Wednesday morning, authorities said.
Coyotes, which also are known as prairie wolves, are found from Central America to the United States and Canada.  Wildlife biologist Bob Bancroft said coyote attacks are extremely rare because the animals are usually shy. Bancroft, a retired biologist with Nova Scotia's Department of Natural Resources, said it's possible the coyotes thought Mitchell was a deer or other prey.  ''It's very unusual and is not likely to be repeated,'' Bancroft said. ''We shouldn't assume that coyotes are suddenly going to become the big bad wolf.''  Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Brigdit Leger said other hikers heard Mitchell's screams for help on Tuesday and called emergency police dispatchers.  Police who were in the area reached the scene quickly and shot one of the animals, apparently wounding it. But the wounded animal and a companion coyote managed to get away.  Paul Maynard of Emergency Health Services said Mitchell already was in critical condition when paramedics arrived on the scene and had multiple bite wounds over her entire body.  ''She was losing a considerable amount of blood from the wounds,'' he said. An official with Parks Canada said they blocked the entrance to the trail where Mitchell was attacked and were trying to find the animals to determine what prompted such an unusual attack.  ''There's been some reports of aggressive animals, so it's not unknown,'' said Helene Robichaud, the park's superintendent. ''But we certainly never have had anything so dramatic and tragic.''
Mitchell was an up-and-coming folk and country musician who was nominated for a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award in the Young Performer of the Year category.  ''Words can't begin to express the sadness and tragedy of losing such a sweet, compassionate, vibrant, and phenomenally talented young woman,'' Lisa Weitz, Mitchell's manager, said in an e-mail. ''She just turned 19 two months ago, and was so excited about the future.''

 

Beaver fever found in spring   (back to top)
By Conor Berry
North Adams Transcript [MA] -10/03/2009

Pittsfield, MA - A Pittsfield woman is among those who unwittingly drank tainted water from a Stephentown, N.Y., spring along Route 22 near the Hancock town line.  The Rensselaer County Health Department last month ordered the spring to be closed after roughly a dozen people succumbed to "beaver fever" -- an parasite caused intestinal disorder formally known as Giardiasis. Charline Powell, 74, of Lenox Avenue, made just one fateful trip to the spring in late August. But she spent the better half of September keeled over in pain, she said, as gut-wrenching nausea and diarrhea wreaked havoc on her health. Powell, who waited 11 days before seeking medical attention, said it was the worst gastrointestinal pain she had ever experienced. "You think you're getting better, then it starts all over again," she said, noting that she weathered three cycles of the virulent illness before seeing a doctor.  "I would'nt wish this on my worst enemy," she said. Powell said she filled 15 empty gallon jugs at the Stephentown spring. She said she drank the water and used it to make coffee. "My friend and I both drank some at the well and took turns filling bottles with other people stopping there," she said. Powell said those who stopped to fill up bottles and jugs hailed from Massachusetts, New York and Vermont. Powell said her treatment included taking a course of antibiotics. "Now, Im totally over with it," she said. After she took ill, she said, she returned to the spring and noticed the well site had been fenced off. A sign from the Rensselaer County Health Department warned people not to drink from the spring, but no explanation was given, according to Powell.  "I then talked to a few locals and found they had been at the well and were not feeling well since," Powell said. "They did not connect their sickness with the water, so I explained what could be their problem and [urged them] to see a [doctor]."  Powell said she lost nearly seven pounds after being stricken by beaver fever. "That's the only good thing about it," she said. "I have never been so sick in my entire life, I tell you." The spring site, which was officially dismantled last month, is located about one-quarter mile north of the intersection of routes 22 and 43, according to Christopher J. Meyer, a public information officer for Rensselaer County.  Health officials are urging anyone who may have bottled water at the site to discard that water immediately. The site is popular with Berkshire County residents, Meyer said. The disorder is known as beaver fever because the animals feces entering the water can unleash the parasite. "Beavers are a contributing factor for giardiasis," said Malcolm Speicher, the president of the Massachusetts Trappers Association.  Speicher said beaver dams typically slow down the flow of water, particularly in rivers and streams, which causes pH and bacteria levels to rise. He said anyone who then drinks that water is susceptible to the intestinal illness, which is caused by a microscopic parasite called Giardia lamblia.

 

Lawrence, 2 pesky beavers wage war - Dam near roadway at heart of battle  (back to top)
By David Abel
Boston Globe Article / September 29, 2009

Lawrence MA - The beaver dam at Den Rock Park in Lawrence caused water to flood onto a section of nearby Route 114. The beaver dam at Den Rock Park in Lawrence caused water to flood onto a section of nearby Route 114.  Beavers have long battled humans over the flow of water, and they usually end up on the losing side. But a pair of the aquatic rodents plying a patch of wetlands in Lawrence were so crafty that they apparently outwitted state officials, at least briefly.  In the past few weeks, a dam built by the long-residing duo in the wetlands adjacent to Den Rock Park sent water flooding onto nearby Route 114.  Officials from the Massachusetts Highway Department moved in with backhoes and breached the dam to drain the flooded road, which was experiencing dangerous driving conditions.  But as often happens in such struggles with beavers, the numbers of which have increased dramatically in the past decade in Massachusetts, the animals quickly rebuilt their dam.  The smart-thinking officials decided to fight back by sticking a long, plastic pipe through the dam, which accomplished the same goal as before, again draining the road and lowering the water level in the surrounding pond.  But the indefatigable beavers weren't fooled. They ripped off some tree branches and used mud to clog the pipes small opening.  Its certainly not uncommon to have to breach a beaver dam multiple times, said Adam Hurtubise, a spokesman for the Highway Department.  But this time, they had to build a cage around the pipe to keep the beavers at bay and allow the water to flow through the culvert beneath Route 114 and into the Shawsheen River.  The frustration experienced by state officials isn't uncommon where nature meets development, and the aggravation is often intense for local officials such as Tennis Lilly, chairman of the Lawrence Conservation Commission.  He often finds himself trying to placate angry homeowners who may have had their basement or driveway flooded. He also has to ensure nature takes its course.  I have never taken as much grief over anything as I have with beavers, Lilly said. They are very unpopular animals.  Beavers have multiplied since the state banned leg-hold traps in 1997. There are now an estimated 60,000 to 90,000 beavers in Massachusetts, up from about 10,000 a decade ago, Lilly said.  The rise in their population has created more conflicts as they encroach on development. But Lilly has a responsibility to preserve the ecosystem and notes that the dams beavers build help attract more wildlife to the area.  He said Den Rock Park is now home to more swallows, herons, wood ducks, mallards, spotted salamanders, wood turtles, frogs, river otters, and mink, among other wildlife, than it had been in years.  Beavers have an impact well beyond their presence, he said. The key is we need to learn to coexist.

 

Gloucester Man Links Water Woes To Broken Dam   (back to top)
By JIM SMITH
GLOUCESTER (WBZ 38)
September 3, 2009

 

Gloucester, MA - Gregg Smith of Citizens for Public safety thinks a partially destroyed beaver dam may be the reason for the Gloucester's contaminated drinking water.  After two weeks, there's no end in sight to the Gloucester water ban. Residents are still under an order to boil their drinking water because of the presence of coliform bacteria.  One resident has a theory on what's causing the problem -- just a simple theory, but a pretty good one. We went first to Babson Reservoir, main source for the city's' drinking water.  Then, another walk, to the possible source of the problem: a broken beaver dam. Someone partially destroyed the dam sometime over the summer. As a result, mucky water rushed downstream and eventually made it into the reservoir.  "Thirty to 50 acres, three feet deep," Smith said.  "Since the city hasn't come up with their own ideas, I'm just putting this one out."  City officials say they are looking into it. "That information has been passed along to the  scientists and the chemists who are investigating this," Deputy Fire Chief Miles Schlichte said. "Along with a couple of other possibilities that citizens have phoned in."  As far as the crisis goes, the latest water test results are better, but not good enough to lift the boil order.  "It has been very frustrating," Mayor Carolyn Kirk said. "It's been frustrating for the citizens of Gloucester and very disruptive to the business  community."  Meanwhile, Gregg Smith is hoping his beaver-dam theory gets checked out. "It's just all the particles coming down at once, clogging the filtration system," he explained. "It's all pretty nasty."  Today the federal government got involved, sending people from the Environmental Protection Agency.  They have toured several sites. The mayor tells us they feel they have a working theory, but no answers yet.

Also see these stories from the Gloucester Times:

And then there was 1

Boil order lifted - for most
Coliform hits down to 1; city warns of fluctuation, boil order stays

 

Coyotes terrorize Dartmouth neighborhood   (back to top)
SouthCoastTODAY.com

By Curt Brown
cbrown@s-t.com
September 03, 2009 12:00 AM

Dartmouth, MA - Residents in a rural, wooded section of town say they're being terrorized by coyotes that have killed farm animals, menaced a woman from her front porch, attacked a family pet and brazenly snatched children's toys from a quiet backyard.  "I used to walk alone in the woods. I won't do that anymore," said Jeanne St. Jean of Collins Corner Road, located in the northwest corner of Dartmouth, near the Fall River line.  "I won't go. No way," St. Jean said. On Wednesday, a frustrated Frank Gwozdz, owner of Dream at Last Farm, 567 Collins Corner Road, stood near the remains of a goat that was killed Tuesday night and talked about his losses.  He said coyotes have killed 24 of his livestock in the past year four calves, two adult cows, 14 young goats, two lambs and two sheep.  In the past two weeks alone, coyotes have killed two goats and a sheep all within the confines of the animals' fenced pens.  Gwozdz, who raises the livestock for food and market, estimates the attacks have taken about $10,000 worth of animals from the farm, which he has owned for 35 years.  Laura Hajduk, a wildlife biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, acknowledged coyotes can be fearsome and won't hesitate to attack other animals. But she said humans shouldn't be intimidated by them.  "Don't let them get to you. Yell, wave your arms, let them know you're around," she said. "They have a natural fear of people."  Hajbuk said part of the problem is that coyotes have grown increasingly accustomed to the sights and sounds of human activity such as car horns, people talking and automobiles starting.  "Harassment" is the key to getting rid of coyotes, combined with a concerted effort to eliminate things such as pet food or garbage that can attract them, she said.  "It's kind of a neighborhood effort," Hajduk said. "If one person and only one person does it, it won't be effective."  Jason Gwozdz, whose parents own Dream at Last Farm, has another solution. On Aug. 8, he shot a coyote that had attacked Nikki, his 9-year-old black Labrador retriever, and also shot another coyote that was acting menacingly around a cow on the farm.  Gwozdz, a hunter, said he won't hesitate to shoot again. "They're wiping out all the livestock," he said. "How much can one man take?"  He is also worried that, "if they are getting that crazy during the day, they will go after a kid next. ... Enough is enough."  Hajduk said while coyote attacks on humans have occurred, they are "very rare." There have been three attacks on humans in the 50 years coyotes have been documented in the state and two of them were by rabid coyotes, she said.  Residents of Collins Corner Road aren't about to take any chances. One person said she was trapped in her car by coyotes in her yard while another said they terrorized her from her porch.  Gwozdz's wife, Kristen, is reluctant to allow their two children to play outside after the coyote attacked their dog during a family barbecue on their 714 Collins Corner Road property.  Neighbors said coyotes have become "very comfortable" in that area. "I don't see that they're scared," said Gloria Bancroft, who lives at 748 Collins Corner Road.  Bancroft said their presence has stopped her from walking the hiking trails near her home and she won't allow her pet outside unless it is on a leash. The brazen animals have even stolen children's toys from her backyard.  Wendy Henderson, Dartmouth's health director, said officials are aware of the coyote attack on the Gwozdzes' dog but hadn't heard about the attacks on the livestock or the nuisance complaints of overly aggressive behavior by coyotes.  Collins Corner Road residents acknowledged they have not reported these incidents to Dartmouth's animal control officer because they don't think the town can do anything about the coyotes.  As for the Gwozdz family, everyone is grateful that Nikki is now recovering after three surgeries. "She looks really good.  Everything is healing," Kristen Gwozdz said. That said, the family is now grappling with nearly $7,000 in veterinary bills. Kristen said that, at one point during treatment, the family was asked whether they wanted to have the dog euthanized. Gwozdz was adamant. She did not even though it meant borrowing the money from her in-laws.  She believes the coyote might have attacked their children had Nikki not intercepted it about 150 feet from her house. "They were circling each other. She would not let that coyote in the yard," Gwozdz said. "If this dog did save my children, how can you not save the dog?" she asked.

 

Foxes spotted off Highland Avenue   (back to top)
The Salem News Online story
By Tom Dalton, Staff writer

September 01, 2009

Salem, MA - The city may start setting traps for foxes after getting reports of a number of the wild animals near Highland Avenue.
One fox, which has lost much of its fur, has sparked concern by residents who spotted it in that area. "He's been floating around quite a bit," Animal Control Officer Don Famico said. "We're going to maybe trap it. ... Once we get him, we'll have somebody look to see if he's suffering in any way."  Famico said he has spoken to officials from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and been told the animal may have mange, a skin condition, but most likely is not a threat to the public. He was told the hairless fox, however, may not make it through a cold winter.  "It's kind of sickly looking ... but Fisheries and Wildlife says it's ... not a major problem." Foxes have been spotted near the Fairweather Apartments, Collins Middle School, Gallows Hill and the police station, Famico said.  "Across from Salem Hospital, there were several families," he said. "There have been several complaints about the one without the hair running around."  This summer, fox attacks have been reported in Lawrence and Brockton. In both cities, captured foxes were found to be rabid. There have been no similar incidents here.  Famico said he plans to talk to the Animal Rescue League and state officials before setting any traps.

 

Flooding raises health concerns   (back to top)
By Jennifer Solis
The Newburyport News

August 26, 2009

 

WEST NEWBURY, MA - Residents living near the old town dump off Georgetown Road fear flooding caused by beaver dams is dangerously close to contaminating their water supply.  But despite urging from the local health agent since June that the dams be breached immediately, state officials say they have yet to conclusively determine the severity of the problem.  Because the land is owned by the state's Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the town needs permission to go onto it to remove the dams.  The old landfill, which was clay-capped in 1986, has been plagued by flooding - likely due to beaver activity - since early last spring. Concerned that contaminants from the site might leach into their well water, residents alerted Health Agent Paul Sevigny, the Board of Selectmen and Mass Fisheries & Wildlife about the problem last April.  "As a lifelong resident who used to make weekly trips to the landfill before it was closed, I can confirm that there is all kinds of dangerous gunk buried there cars, chemicals and other hazardous waste," Kevin Mullen, 118 Georgetown Road, said when reached for comment on Monday.  Sevigny conducted four site visits in June, concluding that three major beaver dams located to the south of the landfill were causing excessive flooding in the vegetated wetlands nearby. The dams need to be removed to allow the natural flow of water to resume and recede away from the landfill.  "Based on the numerous site visits and data gathered, it is the Board of Health's opinion that the rising water level adjacent to the landfill is creating a public health threat," he wrote in a letter to Patricia Huckery, district manager for the Mass. Division of Fisheries & Wildlife dated June 29.  Sevigny, who also contacted the state Department of Health about the problem, also noted that elevated levels of standing water poised an increased risk for mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis.  When contacted yesterday for a comment for this story, Huckery said all questions should be directed to Sevigny or to the division's press department.  "As far as we are concerned, this is an emergency that requires immediate action, and we are dumbfounded as to why it isn't being treated as such. I mean, if someone from the Board of Health told you that your drinking water may become poisoned, wouldn't you expect it to be taken care of right away?" Mullen asked.  In July, the Mass Department of Environmental Protection sent out solid waste engineer Dave Adams to determine if flooding in the area caused by the dams was a threat to neighboring household wells. Adams was involved with the closure of the landfill in 1986.  In an e-mail to Sevigny dated Aug. 6, John Carrigan, the Solid Waste section chief at DEP, noted that Adams did not observe anything during his site visit that immediately suggested the higher water level threatens the integrity of the landfill cap. In addition, he noted that no data has been provided relative to the private wells or the groundwater conditions at the site regarding the potential for the groundwater flow from the landfill to be intercepted by the wells. A review of the aerial photographs suggests that the wells may be cross gradient and not down gradient of the landfill, Carrigan concluded.  Sevigny then requested a second site review with the engineer to highlight his concerns.  "Paul donned his waders to demonstrate that the protective landfill barrier is under 2-plus feet of water, and the test wells are similarly inundated. After about an hour of discussion in the swamp, Dave reluctantly, sort of, agreed that there is a potential health threat," said Mullen, who also attended the site walk.  However, when reached for comment yesterday, DEP's Ed Coletta said only that Adams is "currently reviewing the information and data that he has collected and has not reached any final conclusions to date."  But residents of Georgetown Road want less talk and more action. "We've already lost several months because of all the bureaucracy. Meanwhile the water level continues to rise and so does our level of concern," Mullen said. "The solution is simple: Once the beaver dams are breached, the natural flow of water will resume, and the health threat will go away."

 

Lawrence police kill fox that bit man. Victim awaits results of rabies tests   (back to top)

By Yadira Betances August 26, 2009 | The Eagle Tribune
ybetances@eagletribune.com


LAWRENCE, MA - Edin Tellez is anxiously awaiting test results to determine if a fox that attacked and bit him on his left arm yesterday had rabies. If so, Tellez, 39, would have to receive a series of rabies vaccinations.  Unchecked, the disease can be fatal.  "I was surprised to see it.  I've seen them in the wild and I never thought I'd be attacked by one, especially in the city," Tellez said yesterday.  Tellez and his brother Oscar were at 18 Towerhill St. to help clean the backyard of their cousin Rigoberto and his wife, Carmen. Carmen Tellez said she was sitting on the front stoop when she saw the fox walking on the back of the retaining wall. "I've never seen one before so I was excited," Carmen Tellez said.  Just a few feet away, Edin Tellez was sitting on the sidewalk cleaning a weed whacker, when the fox clung to his left arm. Tellez grabbed the animal by the neck, but not before it left four bloody teeth marks on his arm.  The fox then began to circle Tellez's younger brother, Oscar Tellez, who fell to the ground but was not bitten. When Lawrence police Officer John Tully arrived, Edin Tellez was bleeding from the left arm. He was treated by Patriot Ambulance workers and later went to Lawrence General Hospital, where he was treated and released. In his police report, Tully wrote the fox was hiding under a deck in the rear of 73 Oregon Ave., when it cornered him. "The fox came out from under the deck and started circling me, making low growling noises and showing its teeth," Tully wrote.  "The fox was blocking my only escape path as I had walls to my rear and left and the house in front of me." Tully said the animal charged him and he had to fire his service weapon twice striking the fox on the side and the spine before the ordeal ended. Sgt. Carleton Trombly, who also was at the scene, said animal control took the fox to the MSPCA to have it tested for rabies. "He believed it to be out of its mind," Trombly wrote in his report about Tully's description of the fox. Meanwhile, Edin Tellez received a tetanus shot and was prescribed antibiotics at the hospital. Michael Keiley, manager of the Noble Family Animal Care & Adoption Center at the MSPCA's Nevins Farm in Methuen was not surprised that a fox was roaming the city.  "It's not rare at all. What we are aware of is that as we expand human dwelling, their interaction with humans is much more common," Keiley said. "Wildlife is all around us and it's important for people to keep a good distance and not approach them."

 

Dartmouth coyote attack brings attention to predator population   (back to top)
SoutheastCoastTODAY.com

By DON CUDDY
doncuddy@s-t.com
August 17, 2009 12:00 AM

 

DARTMOUTH, MA - One thing is known about coyotes: There are definitely plenty of them in Massachusetts. One thing is not known: just how many of them there actually are.  A coyote attack on a family dog in Dartmouth earlier this month refocused attention on these elusive predators who have adapted well to both urban and suburban environments. A 9-year-old black Labrador was bitten in North Dartmouth by a coyote, said Cheryl Jackson, Dartmouth's assistant animal control officer.  "It's uncertain whether the dog approached the coyote or the coyote attacked the dog first, since no one was in the yard at the time," she said. And fortunately, at 130 pounds, the Lab, which has recovered, had some layers of fat to protect it.  Nevertheless, the danger posed to family pets by coyotes is very real, particularly for smaller dogs and cats, Jackson said.  Laura Hajduk, a furbearer biologist with Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said that attacks on larger dogs generally result from coyotes attempting to protect their territory. "They would view a big dog as a territorial invader, and coyotes will actively defend their territory."  While coyotes are well-established in Massachusetts, populations are difficult to estimate, Hajduk said. "But they tend to be self-regulating. If food is scarce one year, they won't have as many pups." There are more sightings during the summer, since both coyotes and humans are more active, she said.  "Coyotes have their pups in the spring, so at this time of the year they are trying to feed an entire family as well as showing the pups how to hunt."  Once they establish a territory, coyotes will patrol it, constantly looking for food and intruders and travelling up to 7 miles a day, according to Hajduk. A territory in this region could encompass 6 to 10 square miles, she said.  "We have them in the city," New Bedford's animal control officer Manny Maciel said. "They come from Dartmouth and all over. They will travel a good distance at night. A lot of the calls we get are from the Route 140 and Hathaway Road area because they hang around the transfer station." However, they are usually not too common in more populated areas, he said.  "We tell people to keep their trash covered. If they can't get food they will move on. In fact, we have a saying: 'A fat coyote is a dead coyote,'" Maciel said, relating the story of a coyote that took up residence in Brooklawn Park in the city's North End about 10 years ago.  "People were feeding it. They meant well, but if you feed a wild animal it loses its fear of humans and the next thing that happens is it begins to approach people," he said. "Six months later, it was coming out at (a nearby) school and we had to get a guy from Fish and Wildlife to remove it."

 

 'Lucky' Jasper the cat survives coyote attack Family warns 'it can happen to anyone'   (back to top)

By Bethany Bray Staff Writer
The Andover Townsman - August 13, 2009


ANDOVER, MA - Jasper the cat may have gone through a couple of his nine lives recently.  The 4-year-old domestic short hair cat of the Mintz family on Starwood Drive was attacked by a coyote last weekend. He managed to escape the coyote's grasp, and is on the mend after a few stitches and an evening at an animal hospital.  The Mintz family - Claudia, Howard and their children Isaac, 10, Jesse, 8 and Hannah, 6 - say they are very happy to have Jasper back, and are spreading the word that coyote attacks are a real danger in Andover.  "I was somewhat cavalier about coyotes because I had never seen one myself. Even though it was in the back of my mind, I didn't hesitate to let my cat out," said Claudia. "I realize now that it can happen to anyone. Just because I didn't see coyotes, it doesn't mean that they're not there. I assumed we were immune to it, but we weren't."  The Mintzes did not see Jasper's coyote attack, but Howard did notice a coyote in their backyard around 4 p.m. on Saturday Aug. 1, and later discovered Jasper's wounds. After the family had taken Jasper to the animal hospital, the coyote returned the next day, probably to finish the job and the meal that got away, said Claudia.  Starwood Crossing is a single street cul-de-sac off Greenwood Road. The Mintzes backyard abuts a wooded area. In July, Andover police issued a special warning to pet owners, after two dogs were attacked and carried away by coyotes in the span of two weeks. Coyote sightings and attacks have continued through the summer, say police, and residents are asked not to leave pets tied outside, unattended, or to feed pets outdoors.  Claudia says her family will keep Jasper inside from now on, and keep close supervision on their dog Sabrina, a lab mix, whenever she goes out. The Mintzes three children were upset by Jasper's attack, and understand that he needs to stay inside, even though he doesn't like it.  "I explained to the kids that he would be in danger again. They understand that Jasper was very lucky," said Claudia. "They now call him the mighty cat. He got away from the jaws of death." Staff at a North Andover animal hospital confirmed Jasper's injuries were coyote puncture wounds, said Claudia. Even though Jasper had just had a round of vaccinations, he will have to be quarantined at the Mintz home for 45 days, according to animal control protocol.  "The vet said it was very unusual that he survived. Somehow, Jasper was able to get away," said Claudia. "He fought and got away from that coyote, and boy he was very lucky." On Tuesday, July 21, a Stouffer Circle resident called police to report that his poodle was taken by a coyote from his yard in the early morning.  Earlier in July, a dog was plucked from a yard off Dascomb Road by a coyote when the owner let the dog out in the early morning. A second attack happened on the trails around Haggetts Pond, when a local woman let her dog off leash to run.

 

     

Attacking fox is killed after 2 people bitten in Whitman   (back to top)

 

By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent | August 11, 2009
Boston Globe


WHITMAN, MA - A fox crime spree in Whitman may have come to an end yesterday at the hands of a rake-wielding resident.
I whacked him over the head with an iron rake, said John Watt, 42, who was checking on his pet rabbits when the fox came at him about 7 a.m. The blow with the rake was fatal.  The animal, possibly rabid, is believed to have triggered seven police calls in Whitman on Sunday, during a rampage that left two people bitten, police said.  I believe its probably the same one, but I'm not positive because there's a den of them out there, said Robert Hammond, the towns animal control officer.  The trouble began just before 2 p.m. Sunday on Brigham Street, where six toddlers were playing in a backyard. The homes owner, Tom Shannon, said a fox was lying in the shade of a pop-up camper.  I've seen [the fox] two or three times before, he said, but always at night and never this close. About 30 minutes later, a fox startled Cynthia Dorchester, 66, in her Franklin Street backyard. She threw a 5-pound bag of fertilizer at the canine, which it caught in its mouth, giving Dorchester time to get away.  He was aggressive. I saw his teeth and he was ready to attack, said Dorchester, who has never seen a fox in her 62 years in Whitman. If I hadn't had that bag in my hand, he would've gotten me.  Down the street less than an hour later, Jeannie Kenney was waxing her car when she was bitten in the buttocks, piercing her skin. She received seven shots for rabies yesterday as a precaution. I was bending down and next thing I know he was on my butt, she said. It was just a little nip; there was some blood on my shorts.  It is unclear whether the incidents stem from the same fox. Hammond said that, based on the animals actions, one of the towns foxes has gone bad. . . . All the symptoms say to me that its rabies.  Whitman police Officer Frank O'Rourke believes multiple foxes are menacing the area. There's probably more than one, he said. The way they were traveling [Sunday] night, this fox had to have his best Nike sneakers on to travel that fast.  Four more sightings, two on Winter Street, one on Hickey Hollow Lane, and one on Franklin Street, came between 4 and 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. In one Winter Street case, a fox attacked a mans foot, puncturing his sneaker but not his skin.  Later that night, Hammond, 68, shot at a fox. I may have hit it, but I'm not sure, he said, adding: It rolled over, then got up and ran off. The body of the fox killed yesterday did not have a bullet wound, according to Hammond. He said hell send the body to be tested for rabies, but because the carcass was left out in the sun all day - Watt killed it at 7 a.m. and reported it 11 hours later - the results may be inconclusive.  O'Rourke said that although foxes do inhabit the town, he has never heard of an attack during his 35 years of duty. But not even on my best days would I trust one, he said.

 

Rabid Skunk attacks Norfolk man   (back to top)

 

Wicked Local Norfolk

 Heather McCarron/Staff writer July 30, 2009

 

NORFOLK, MA - A 70-year resident of Priscilla Avenue was attacked by a rabid skunk Sunday afternoon after he attempted to shoo the animal off his property, according to Animal Control Officer Hilary Cohen. The skunk went after the man, who had swatted at it with his crutches, around 2 p.m. Sunday, even pursuing him into his home, nestled in a wooded area near the former Norfolk Airport. The skunk bit the mans shoes, pant legs and crutches; it is unclear whether the skunk drew blood, since the man declined treatment, Cohen said. "Basically, he saw the skunk in his yard and went outside to shoo it away and it attacked him," said Cohen, who is not identifying the man. "He's somewhat disabled, so by the time he could get away from it the skunk chased him inside. He somehow managed to get the skunk back outside. He said he basically cornered it with his crutches and kept shooing it back out." Cohen arrived following a 911-call, and had two encounters with the creature before shooting it dead. First, as the skunk came at her, she grabbed a snow shovel that was on the lawn, scooped the advancing skunk up and flung it away. At that point, the animal scurried off into the undergrowth, but then came back as Cohen was looking for it. She ended up shooting it three times. Cohen said she hasn't often seen a manifestation of furious rabies, but this skunk clearly had been driven mad by the illness. "This animal had the classic foaming of the mouth, he was very aggressive and he was intent to chase people and hurt them," she said. The remains were sent to the state Department of Public Health in Jamaica Plain for confirmation of Cohen's visual diagnosis. The results came back July 27 positive for the rabies virus, she said. A second skunk was shot at the same property on Tuesday and sent in for testing; those results were not expected back until after the Gazettes press deadline. Cohen said authorities are also working on removing numerous feral cats from the area that were interacting with the first skunk and have clearly been exposed to the virus; they will be euthanized. As of Wednesday afternoon, nine cats had been removed; one cat carcass found in the yard Sunday was also removed, but the remains were in such poor condition that testing for rabies infection could not be undertaken, Cohen said. Cohen said animals suspected of rabies are not unheard of in the town, but Sundays attack on a person is the first she has encountered in Norfolk. She said there are a lot of skunks this year that have been showing strange behavior and, in fact, another skunk on the other side of town was also put down Sunday because it was suspected of having rabies. There was no human exposure in that case. Sunday was also the day another resident was bitten by a bat; she swatted the bat away, so there was no specimen to send in for rabies testing. As a precaution, the woman is undergoing treatment for rabies, Cohen said. The Priscilla Avenue resident may also have to undergo treatment for rabies exposure which, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, includes administration of rabies immune globulin and a series of five rabies vaccine shots over the course of a months (rabies shots are no longer given in the stomach). Cohen said the mans physician and the state Department of Public Health would determine the course of action in his case. The skunk attack is the second one by a rabid animal in the area in the past week and a half. Last Wednesday, a rabid cat attacked a man in Bellingham. In the aftermath of the attack, Cohen is advising residents especially those in the Leland Road and Priscilla Avenue area of town to avoid contact with any stray cats, dogs or wildlife.  The worry is that other animals on the mans property or in the neighborhood could have been exposed to the virus. "If you live in this area and have pets, please check them over for any possible bite marks if you have allowed your animal to roam without supervision in the past week," she noted in an advisory on the town Web site. "I cannot stress enough how absolutely imperative it is for your pet to be current on their rabies vaccinations as the rabies virus is fatal if contracted." According to the state DPH, rabies is a fatal disease of the brain and spinal cord caused by a virus. "Rabies in humans is very rare in the U.S., but rabies in certain animals especially wildlife is common in many parts of the country, including Massachusetts," the DPH fact sheet on rabies states.  The rabies virus lives in the saliva and nervous tissues of infected animals and is spread when they bite or scratch. The virus can also be spread if saliva from an infected animal touches broken skin, open wounds or the lining of the mouth, nose, or eyes. It may also be possible to inhale the virus in caves crowded with infected bats. Rabies can infect any mammal, but is most common in bats, skunks, foxes, woodchucks, and raccoons. Cats, dogs and livestock can contract rabies as well, and transfer it to their owners. A rabid animal often behaves strangely after the virus begins to take effect on their brains. According to the DPH, "Rabid animals may attack people or other animals for no reason, or they may lose their fear of people and seem to be unnaturally friendly."  "Not all rabid animals act in these ways, however, so you should avoid all wild animals especially bats, skunks, foxes, and raccoons," the DPH advises. "Also, you should not feed or touch stray cats and dogs." How can you prevent rabies?   Avoid wild animals, especially bats, skunks, foxes, and raccoons. Do not feed or pet strays. Avoid any animal wild, farm or pet that you do not know. Report any animal that behaves oddly to your local animal control official.  Teach your children to avoid wildlife, strays, and all other animals they do not know well. Do not handle dead, sick, or injured wild animals yourself; call the police or animal control officer. If you must handle the animal, use heavy gloves, sticks or other tools to avoid direct contact.  Make sure your pets are vaccinated against rabies and that their shots are up-to-date. By law, all dogs, cats and ferrets must be vaccinated against rabies.  Feed pets indoors and keep them indoors at night If they are outside during the day, keep them on a leash or fenced in so they cannot wander. It is possible for vaccinated pets to get rabies. Pets allowed to roam freely are more likely to get rabies and possibly expose people and other pets in your home.  Fasten trash can lids tightly. Garbage attracts animals (like skunks, raccoons, and strays) looking for an easy meal.  It is against state law to keep wild animals such as skunks or raccoons as pets. There are no rabies vaccines for most wild species.  Cap your chimney with screens and block openings in attics, cellars, and porches to keep wild animals like bats and raccoons out of your home.  If you have bats in your house, talk to a professional about bat-proofing your home.  Animal control officers, veterinarians, their assistants, and others who have a lot of contact with strays or wildlife should get routine rabies vaccinations to protect themselves before they are exposed to the virus.

 

Fox attack leaves Edgewood residents edgy   (back to top)

By Rebecca Hyman

Tue Jul 29, 2008, 05:31 PM EDT

 Wicked Local News - Bridgewater

BRIDGEWATER, MA - The residents of High Pond Estates are on high alert since a rabid fox shattered the calm of their peaceful neighborhood.  The state Department of Public Health confirmed the fox that attacked 71-year-old Shirley Doyle tested positive for rabies.  Doyle, who is receiving a course of rabies shots, said she's still shaken by the incident.  When she went for a recent walk, her daughter insisted she take a gardening claw with her just in case.  And she's not alone. She saw a couple of neighbors in the manufactured home community carrying big sticks as they strolled along.  And someone posted a sign at the entrance to the development notifying people of the attack.  Doyle, of 4 Edgewood Drive, credits the bravery and quick thinking of her neighbor Norman Millikan, of 2 Edgewood Drive, with saving her life.  She recounts how she had just been out for a walk and was cutting across her trim front lawn on the evening of Saturday, July 12, when she thought she saw a silvery-gray cat trotting down her tranquil street, which is lined with woods on one side.  Suddenly, the animal charged toward her, lunged at her ankle, sunk its teeth in and pulled her down to the ground.  Its teeth felt like razor blades, she said.  The 71-year-old grandmother managed to push the fox off with her sandal, but he swung around and grabbed the back of her leg, and this time she couldn't shake him.  She lay on the ground struggling with the frenzied animal and screaming for help. But it was a hot night and her neighbors had their air conditioners on. She feared no one would hear her calls. Her blood was all over the lawn.  I thought I was going to die. The pain was so bad, I thought I was going to pass out, Doyle said.  One house down, Millikan was watching Dial M for Murder with his wife when he remembered he hadn't locked his truck, an unusual occurrence.  As he headed out to take care of it, Millikan heard Doyles screams. At first he thought it was just her grandchildren playing in the sprinkler.  Then he spotted Doyle lying on the ground.  God was there. He sent him to me, Doyle said.  He didn't hesitate.  Millikan grabbed the fox by the tail and threw it into the street. He expected the animal to run into the woods, but instead it came after him. It lunged at him three or four times, finally grabbing hold of his pant leg.  That's when the retired mental health worker made his move. As the fox's mouth was occupied, Millikan got his foot on the animals neck, grabbed its tail with his right hand and its hind legs with his left.  Millikan managed to hold the fox down until firefighters arrived and killed it with the blunt end of an ax.  I cant say enough about how wonderful the care has been, from the emergency personnel on the scene to the staff at Brockton Hospital, Doyle said.  All along the animal was making an eerie sound and fighting to get free.  He wasn't giving up, Doyle said.  But neither was Millikan.  Doyle says Millikan is her hero, but he shrugs it off.  She would have done the same for me. You don't stop to think, you just act, he said.  Doyle, who's lived on Edgewood Drive for two-and-a-half years, and Millikan, who's lived there for 19 years, said they've occasionally seen brown foxes before, but they were always shy and ran away, the opposite of the one that attacked her.  Millkan said he's a little more cautious outdoors since the incident.  This fox was rabid. It doesn't mean he was the only one, Millikan said.  Doyle had a nightmare a few days ago the fox was at the foot of her bed tearing at her legs, which are both bandaged and bruised.  She awoke to find shed been kicking at the covers as she struggled with the animal in her sleep.  Doyle will get a total of five shots, one per week.  Millikan said his doctors advised him he doesn't need the shots since the fox did not break his skin.  Despite the shots, Doyle said she's frightened shell contract rabies.  Health officials suspected from the start the fox was rabid, but finding out for sure still came as a shock, she said.  But Doyle reminds herself her doctors have assured her shell be fine.  I am going to by OK. I will put this behind me, she said.  But one thing she wont forget is Millikan's selfless act, she said.  He's a very easy-going, quiet guy. I don't think he wants all the attention. But he deserves it, Doyle said.

 

Raynham family shocked after coyote attack leaves pet cat clinging to life   (back to top)

By TIM FAULKNER, Staff Writer

GateHouse News Service

Posted Jul 27, 2009 @ 11:39 PM

 

RAYNHAM, MA - Another instance of wildlife migration into a residential neighborhood occurred last week when a coyote attacked a cat belonging to a Cynthia Drive family.  At about 11 p.m. Thursday, Lynda and Rick Rose were searching outside their home for their 12-year-old house cat, Wren, when they heard the cat wailing as it was snatched up by a coyote.  Rick Rose yelled at the animal as he ran from the back deck with a golf club, causing the frightened animal to drop the white, 20-pound cat and run into an open area along a power line behind the house.  Wren was treated for severe bruises and several puncture wounds at an animal hospital in Bridgewater. Back home and feeding through an intravenous tube, the cats survival is very uncertain, Lynda Rose said.  Since the attack, her 12-year-old daughter locks the doors at night and has been afraid to leave the house. It's stressful, Rose said.  She has sighted the gray coyote several times this year, once at about 10 a.m. on nearby Pleasant Street. And she worried that other pets in the neighborhood are at risk. If it keeps getting animals its going to keep coming, Rose said. Marion Larson, a biologist with the state  Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, said the incident will become more common if coyotes find new sources of food such as garbage, small pets and even bird feed. They're going to take any meal wherever they possibly can, Larson said. Noting that there have only been three reported attacks since coyotes were first found roaming in Massachusetts, Larson stressed that coyotes are not known to harm humans. Despite several reported coyote sighting in Raynham this year and the mauling death of a small dog on Locust Street in February, Larson said the coyote population has not dramatically increased in recent years. Rather, she said, coyotes thrive in suburban landscapes that present new sources of food. Unless humans yell and attempt to scare off coyotes, she said, encounters with the animals will be more common.  Raynham Animal Control Officer Fred Sylvia said, so far, coyotes appear to be moving around town at will. They are just looking for food and they just have no fear of people right now.  tfaulkner@tauntongazette.com

 

Fox attacks shake up Brockton neighborhood   (back to top)

Globe Staff,  July 23, 2009 02:53 PM

By Jazmine Ulloa,

BROCKTON, MA - Animal control officers are hunting down two foxes involved in three attacks on people this week in a neighborhood on the city's north side, Supervisor Thomas DeChellis said today.  Officers believe they may be guarding a den of pups, and the department is investigating the gender of the animals and whether they are rabid, he said.  "I have been working for 15 years in animal control," DeChillis said. "But this type of incident has never happened."  Officers are searching for a silver fox involved in two attacks and a red one that bit a third person last night, DeChellis said. But many grey foxes also have a lot of red fur, and there may be only one fox involved, said Marion Larson, a biologist with the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.   A silver fox bit the lace of Isabella Robbins's in-ine skate Monday night just as she was reaching home with her mom and 3-year-old sister, she said. Her mother Jennifer Robbins, who was walking in front of Isabella, dragged her daughter as she screamed for help. A neighbor came out and scared the fox away before the girl was bitten.  "I am never wearing those skates again," said Isabella, 9, who remains afraid to play outside.  Mary Seaver had been spreading mulch in the corner of her front garden, when a silver fox jumped out of the bushes and latched on to her ankle. Seaver screamed as she grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and pried its mouth open, she said. The fox scampered off into the bushes.  "I looked down and copious amounts of blood were spilling from my sneakers," said Seaver, who immediately called 911. "I was up shivering in fevers all night."  That night, a few houses down the street, Mary Ellen Nutting, 47, had been in her backyard garden picking some vegetables for a friend, when she heard scratching on the other side of her wooden fence. Nutting, who had seen a red fox crouching around her yard earlier, and her friend took off running toward her house. The fox chased them and bit into Nutting's ankle, while her friend ran inside, she said. Nutting began beating it with the watering hose stick she had been holding, which was the size of a golf club, until it dashed away. The symptoms displayed by the foxes are unusual and could mean the animals are distempered or have an aggressive form of rabies, Larson said. A member from their department may pay a site visit to the city tonight or early tomorrow morning to help with the search, she said.  "It is very difficult to catch a wild animal even if the attacks are happening in the same neighborhood," she said.

 

Coyotes strike again; cat killed in Georgetown   (back to top)
The Daily New Online story

By Katie Curley - Staff writer

July 21,2009

Georgetown, MA - For the second time in less than a week, a coyote has claimed the life of a local pet.
Shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday, a Clark Street resident called police reporting a coyote had come onto his porch and taken his cat away in its mouth.  The coyote headed in the direction of Moulton Street, the resident said. "Officers checked the immediate area but were unable to locate the animal," Georgetown Detective Thomas DeJoy said.  The cat's owner could not be reached for comment yesterday. Sunday's incident comes within four days of when Abbey Road resident Lisa Burke's Jack Russell terrier named Lucy was attacked and killed as Burke walked her in the Georgetown/Rowley State Forest on Wednesday morning.  A second of Burke's dogs was also injured in the attack but is recovering at home. "The coyote scooped her up and tried to carry her away," Burke said. "The coyote came toward us and caught me off guard. Our friendliest dog (Lucy) ran toward it to play with the coyote."  In the aftermath of Wednesday's attack, Burke said she hoped to urge all local residents to be on the lookout as they walked their dogs. "It wasn't dark out, and I wasn't far from the parking lot," Burke said. "I've never seen a coyote so aggressive."  In June, a Groveland woman was surrounded and chased out of the woods by a pack of coyotes while she walked her four dogs. She had been walking her dogs near Carter's Ice Cream on Haverhill's Salem Street, which extends to the old Groveland sand pits and across some strawberry fields once used as soccer fields. The woman and her dogs were not hurt in the incident, but Groveland police issued alerts to residents.  Last week Laura Hajduk, a biologist with the Massachusetts Department of Wildlife, urged residents to keep dogs close to them on leashes when walking and make sure to keep other small pets indoors at all times.  "Coyotes are naturally fearful of people," Hajduk said after Wednesday's attack. "When the dog is close to the person, they are an extension instead of a food item or another canine in someone else's territory."  Another thing dog owners can do to prevent an attack like yesterday's is to make a lot of noise if they do spot a coyote nearing their pet. "Attacks on people are very rare," Hajduk said. "We have had three in Massachusetts in more than 50 years. It is very rare coyotes are aggressive toward people."  Hajduk said making a lot of noise by clapping or banging pots and pans will scare coyotes off and always remember to rid your backyard of garbage or bird feeders, which attract predators.  "If at all possible, please keep your pets inside," DeJoy said. "A roaming pet is a target for a hungry coyote or fox. Also, please refrain from leaving food outside to feed your pet. Outside feeding will also attract coyotes and other wild animals."

 

MA: Coyotes stalk woman, kill dog at Georgetown/Rowley State Forest   (back to top)

Posted Jul 20, 2009 @ 12:32 PM

 

Georgetown MA -

Coyotes attacked and killed a dog that was walking with her owner in the Georgetown/Rowley State Forest last Wednesday morning.  Georgetown resident Lisa Burke thinks the coyotes were stalking her and her four dogs during their entire walk.  My dogs were staying unusually close to me all morning, says Burke.  I did not even see the coyotes coming they came out on the trail right in front of me and were approaching me aggressively when my dogs saw them.  By then it was too late.  Like many Georgetown dog owners, Burke liked to walk her four dogs in the forest where they could run along unleashed. On July 15, she approached the parking lot after her walk and, with all the dogs right with her, prepared to put their leashes back on before crossing the parking lot entrance. Two coyotes suddenly charged her at trail marker number 15.  The two coyotes attacked Burkes little Boston terrier Stella, and that's when Jack Russell terrier Lucy came to the rescue.  Lucy died a hero she saved Stella by jumping into the fight and attacking the coyotes when they went for Stella, says Burke, who also sent a mass  e-mail to other local dog owners as a warning about the attack. One was holding Stella by the throat and the other had her back legs. When Lucy entered the fight the coyotes dropped Stella and picked up Lucy.  Maggie [the new family boxer] protected me, another hero in my eyes. Maggie, a boxer we have only had for one month, chased the coyotes when they picked up Lucy. I picked up Lucy off the path and ran carrying her as fast as I could because I knew she was in shock. The coyotes chased me to try to get at Lucy, but Maggie kept barking and they stayed back.   I got Lucy to the vet and she was alive but she went into cardiac arrest and they couldn't save her.  I feel so bad and sad I will miss her so much. She was such a terror, but that's what I loved about her.  Her motto, I think, was It's all in the attitude.  Stella was very badly injured but, thanks to Lucy's heroic actions, is expected to survive and be OK after a few weeks.  She has a lot of puncture wounds from the coyotes teeth, and bruises on her chest from when they were carrying her away and shaking her, says Burke. Stella had her current rabies shots and she was given a booster shot. She is in quarantine at home here at home for the next 42 days.  Georgetown Animal Inspector Holly Willard stopped by to check Stella out as well.  Burke says she cant thank the Bulger Animal Hospital in North Andover enough for the care they gave Lucy and Stella.  They did everything they could for Lucy you could'nt have asked for more, says Burke. Stella is still not herself. The vets said she might be mourning for Lucy for a while she keeps looking for her.  Burke is warning dog owners to be aware of this new danger to their pets in the forest.  The Georgetown Police Report on the incident notes the attack took place in an area behind the Penn Brook School section of the forest while all the dogs were close by their owner. Burke and her other two dogs were not injured in the attack.  Georgetown Police Lt. Don Cudmore says people need to be aware of what's out there.  Any person walking in the forest should be mindful that coyotes and other wild animals are always present, and should avoid them whenever possible, says Cudmore.  He encourages residents to learn more about coyotes and other wildlife by visiting the Mass. Wildlife Web site at

www.masswildlife.org.

 

South Hadley officials hope to resolve flooding problems at Ledges Golf Club without killing beavers   (back to top)

by The Republican Newsroom - SANDRA E. CONSTANTINE sconstantine@repub.com
Friday July 17, 2009, 9:00 PM


SOUTH HADLEY - Town officials are looking into whether they can resolve flooding at the Ledges Golf Club created by busy beavers without having to destroy the rodents.
  Interim town administrator Jennifer L. Wolowicz said on Friday that officials are working with Dr. Katherine Lannon of 22 Valley View Drive to find alternatives to trapping and killing the beavers.  Lannon is the resident who complained to the Conservation Commission recently about golf course superintendent Michael Fontaine breaching a beaver dam that had flooded a cart path near a bridge over White Brook. Fontaine took that action the weekend of June 20 because of the effect the dam had on the cart path as well as the potential of flooding affecting utility and sewer lines under the bridge.  The Conservation Commission ordered the removal of invasive species near the site because Fontaine did not get its permission to do work in a wetland. Fontaine later got a permit from the Board of Health to trap and destroy the animals.  Wolowicz said she is uncertain if the animals' lives can be spared, but that Fontaine is working on the issue. Fontaine could not be reached for comment.

 

Police warn of coyotes after small dog is killed  (back to top)
NewburyportNews.com
By Katie Curley - Staff writer
July 16, 2009


Georgetown MA - Police are urging residents to keep their dogs on leashes after one woman's dog was killed by a coyote as she walked her dogs yesterday morning.  Yesterday shortly before 9 a.m., Georgetown police received a call from a resident who reported while his wife was walking their four dogs in the Georgetown/Rowley State Forest, one of the dogs, a Jack Russell terrier, was attacked by two coyotes and severely injured.  After the incident, Detective Thomas DeJoy stated the owners of the dog were too upset to speak about the incident publicly. DeJoy said the dogs were not on leashes but were close to their owner when the coyotes approached them. The owner was not injured in the attack. The Jack Russell terrier was taken to a local animal hospital, where it later died. A second dog was also injured but is expected to make a full recovery.  The attack took place in an area behind the Penn Brook School section of the forest; the  Massachusetts Environmental Police were also advised of the incident.  "This time of year, coyotes have their pups and they are out looking for food often," said Laura Hadjuk, a biologist with the Massachusetts Department of Wildlife. "Small dogs and cats are most vulnerable. Dogs should be kept on leashes very close to the person walking it. Cats should be kept indoors."  In June, a Groveland woman was surrounded and chased out of the woods by a pack of coyotes while she walked her four dogs. She had been walking her dogs near Carter's Ice Cream on Haverhill's Salem Street, which extends to the old Groveland sand pits and across some strawberry fields once used as soccer fields. The woman and her dogs were not hurt in the incident, but Groveland police issued alerts to residents.  Jajuk said when coyotes see a dog close to an owner on a leash, they register the animal as an extension of the person. "Coyotes are naturally fearful of people," Jajuk said. "When the dog is close to the person, they are an extension instead of a food item or another canine in someone else's territory."
Another thing dog owners can do to prevent an attack like yesterday's is to make a lot of noise if they do spot a coyote nearing their pet. "Attacks on people are very rare," Jajuk said. "We have had three in Massachusetts in more than 50 years. It is very rare coyotes are aggressive toward people."  Jajuk said making a lot of noise by clapping or banging pots and pans will scare coyotes off and always remember to rid your backyard of garbage or bird feeders, which attract predators.  "You want to discourage them," Jajuk said. "They eat just about anything: mice, rabbits, chipmunks, vegetation and garbage."

 

Busy beavers adding to soppiness of the season   (back to top)
The Boston Globe - James OBrien
July 9, 2009

Statewide MA - More communities must deal with beaver management issues as the animals multiply and expand their range. More communities must deal with beaver management issues as the animals multiply and expand their range. (Diane Hargreaves)Roadways flooded by blocked culverts. Backyards sopping with overflowing brooks. Septic systems filled to the bursting point.  Conservation-minded officials in the suburbs west of Boston say they dont like to make enemies of the beavers that have taken to the brooks and streams in the woods around them, but the animals are making for an even more waterlogged spring and summer.  In communities such as Westborough, Maynard, Milford, and Holliston, residents and officials are having to deal more and more with beavers and the problems they pose, as the creatures numbers and range have expanded.  If a human did what beavers do, the human would be in jail, said Paul McNulty, public health director for Westborough. Theyre nice and cute and all, but they cause a lot of damage.  The beavers build their lodges across municipal waterways, McNulty said, creating an attractive mating spot and then, theres three, four, five of them in there.  And the dams are not just flooding roads, sewers, and lawns.This is causing great damage to our wetlands, too, he said. Its getting to be a real, real problem. The town has had to set up a separate line item in the budget for beaver control.The $5,000 line item is meant to allow Westborough officials to hire licensed trappers.  According to McNulty, three such permits have been issued so far, netting what McNulty estimated were 15 to 20 beavers. Each permit is valid for 10 days, allowing a trapper to remove as many beavers as they can find at a site.  Laura Hajduk, a biologist at the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said reports of beavers damming up the suburbs come as no surprise.  When you have a certain number in an area, they have to go somewhere, Hajduk said. They may be moving into an area in which they hadnt previously been prevalent.  Beavers are a Massachusetts comeback story, according to the state agency. They vanished entirely in the state in the late 1700s as a result of hunting and deforestation.  As woodlands recovered, and after the reintroduction of the beaver in the 1930s, the population rebounded. In 1952, a regulated hunting season was implemented. Then, in 1996, a state referendum banned the quick-kill traps commonly used by hunters and researchers.  Hajduk said the beaver count tripled between 1996 - when it hovered around 20,000 - and 2001, which was the last year in which the state issued a beaver-population estimate.  Hajduk said additional changes to beaver-trapping laws came in 2000, putting the authority for trapping licenses in the hands of local governments, and thus eliminating mandatory reporting to the state.  This took away our most effective tools for beaver management, Hajduk said.

 

Earlier fox bite reported nearby   (back to top)

Unclear if attack was same animal

 

By Linda Bock TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

lbock@telegram.com July 2, 2009

 

WORCESTER MA -  Barry Blomgren called his sister Melanie Lombardi Monday night and told her she would not believe what happened to him.  He told me a fox bit him, and he was on his way to the hospital, said Ms. Lombardi, of Boylston. What makes the story even more interesting, she said, was that two others in the same neighborhood were attacked by a potentially rabid fox Tuesday.  A local man is being hailed as a hero for helping rid a West Side neighborhood of a rabid fox that attacked a 76-year-old woman outside her Mount Hope Terrace apartment Tuesday morning. The fox also attacked the rescuer.  The woman, Wenyu Chen, remained hospitalized last night from injuries suffered in the daytime attack. Robert Ford, the man who came to her rescue, was treated at a city hospital for a bite to his leg. Mr. Ford began a series of rabies shots as a precaution.

 

Mr. Blomgren was outside trimming his lawn at his home at 32 Westland St. about 7:30 p.m. Monday when a fox came up behind him and bit his ankle.  It was nothing compared to those other people,  Mr. Blomgren said yesterday morning. The fox, it might have been the same one, hit me from my blind side.  The fox then attacked the pile of grass clippings in a nearby paper bag. Mr. Blomgren said he threw his weed-whacking tool at the fox to try to scare him away.  Mr. Blomgren's front door was locked, so he went around to the back and made it in the back door. The fox followed him up the stairs.  The weird thing when it happened is there were some kids in the neighborhood, and I told them to go home, Mr. Blomgren said. He said he moved to the city about 18 months ago from Rutland where nothing like this ever happened to him. His wife, who is a nurse practitioner, drove him to UMass Memorial Medical Center Memorial Campus about 8:30 that night. He did not get out of the hospital until almost 2:30 a.m. because the rabies serum for recommended shots had to be transferred from another area hospital, he said.

Mr. Blomgren said he tried to contact a Worcester animal control officer before leaving for the hospital but got a recording that said because of budget cuts, the department no longer responds to animal control issues. As of yesterday, the start of the fiscal year, animal control is handled by the Worcester Police Department. Mr. Blomgren said hospital officials recommended he report the incident to police Tuesday morning, which he did.  While Mr. Blomgren believes the fox that bit him was the same fox that bit the other two people, he said he decided to undergo the series of rabies shots just in case that fox did not prove to be rabid and it may have been another fox that bit him. He received seven rabies shots and a tetanus shot Monday night, and will have to go back four more times for more shots.  I'm not going to take a chance, Mr. Blomgren said. I just hope this does'nt happen to anyone else. I've never heard of a fox doing this.  Dr. Florina S. Tseng, director of the wildlife clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in Grafton, said the most common occurrence of rabies in animals in Central Massachusetts is in raccoons.  Maybe it (the fox) was bitten by a raccoon, Dr. Tseng said.  People in the region should use common-sense precautions, Dr. Tseng said.  I would emphasize to do everything not to attract wildlife, Dr. Tseng said. She said keep lids on trash, don't put out cat food, and do not pick up baby wild animals.  Keep your distance, especially the babies. Babies can have rabies from their mother. Please don't pick them up. And don't feed wild animals, she said.  The fox that attacked the woman and man Tuesday was euthanized. The state lab in Jamaica Plain determined it had rabies.  Mrs. Chen was listed in fair condition yesterday, according to hospital officials.   

 

 

 

 

 

Beaver Dams Cause Flood Problems In Mass. Towns   (back to top)
Bill Shields
BOSTON (WBZ 38) June, 16, 2009

 

 

Beaver traps were outlawed in 1996, and now the state's beaver population has skyrocketed from 20,000 to 70,000.
"Following those changes we did see an expanding of the beaver population and with that an increase in complaints," says Laura Hadjuk of Mass. Wildlife. Now, beaver dams are flooding areas that have seldom been flooded. One backyard visited in Concord now floods whenever it rains heavily because of a new beaver dam nearby. "Well I believe that the beavers are happy, but the neighborhood here is not very happy," one resident said. "When it rains or gets backed up in that pit where the beaver dam is, the backyard over here fills with water."

BEAVER DECEIVERS
But one beaver dam in Westboro is equipped with what's called a 'beaver deceiver'. A pipe is inserted into the dam to allow water to flow, then it's caged off so the beavers don't build over it. "It allows the beavers and the homeowners to live harmoniously," explains Delia Kaye with Concord Natural Resources. "So the [upstream] water level is reduced, but still is deep enough so the beavers can live but not cause flooding or the impairment of structures or whatever is causing the health or safety concern."

CO-EXISTENCE AND MANAGEMENT
With beaver numbers steadily increasing, people and wildlife officials have to be resourceful. Is there a long-term solution or do we just have to learn to live with them?  Hadjuk's answer is co-existence and management. "Have regulated trapping go through, come through on a regular basis if you have continual problems." There is an upside to all of this though. The wetlands caused by the beavers do help to recharge the water tables.


Haverhill woman says she was surrounded by coyotes   (back to top)
June 11, 2009 05:03 PM
By Stewart Bishop, Globe Correspondent

Groveland, MA - A Haverhill woman says she had a harrowing brush with the wild, when she was surrounded by coyotes while walking her dogs in a wooded area.  Mary Burke, 47, was out walking her four Labrador retrievers at around 7 a.m. Monday in an area off Groveland Road in the town of Groveland, which is adjacent to Haverhill, when she looked up and saw a coyote staring her down.  "I was talking on the phone to a friend when all of a sudden there was one, then there was four, and they surrounded me," Burke said today. As I turned around, I started crying, I said to my friend, "Oh my God, I'm not going to make it out of here."  Burke called 911.   "We got a call that a woman was being aggressively followed by coyotes," said Groveland Police Chief Robert Kirmelewicz. "She had four good-sized dogs with her, but [the coyotes] weren't backing down."  The police were able to locate Burke's exact position using their enhanced 911 system, which pinpointed Burke's cell phone, said Kirmelewicz.  "The GPS feature proved to be a great tool in this instance," Kirmelewicz said. "If we hadn't been able to locate her, who knows what could have happened?"  The dispatcher was able to guide Burke out of the woods as officers rushed to help, but the coyotes kept pursuing.  "They followed me all the way out of the woods," Burke said. "All the while I was talking to my dogs, telling them to stay with me."  As Burke reached the edge of the wooded area, Groveland police cruisers arrived on scene, sirens blaring, and the coyotes fled.  "It was the most scary experience of my life, and I'm a cancer survivor twice over," Burke said.  "They were so close, I could've touched them with a pool cue."  Chief Kirmelewicz said the officers didn't see the coyotes when they arrived.  Burke said this experience has made her think that more should be done to control the coyote population.  "We used to do controlled hunts for coyotes," she said. "But that's not the case anymore, and the population is out of control."  Kirmelewicz said that while coyote sightings are not uncommon, it's unusual for them to act this way, and he urged people to take certain precautions when out in rural, wooded areas.  "I would suggest the best thing to do, if you're approached by coyotes, is to make a lot of noise to try and scare them off," he said. "And always carry a cell phone."

 

   (back to top) The New York Times - Published June 8, 2009

 

CONCORD, Mass. The dozens of public works officials, municipal engineers, conservation agents and others who crowded into a meeting room here one recent morning needed help. Property in their towns was flooding, they said. Culverts were clogged. Septic tanks were being overwhelmed.  Once wiped out in Massachusetts, beavers were repopulated in the 1930s.  "We have a huge problem", said David Pavlik, an engineer for the town of Lexington, where dams built by beavers have sent water flooding into the towns sanitary sewers. We trapped them, he said. We breached their dam. Nothing works. We are looking for long-term solutions.  Mary Hansen, a conservation agent from Maynard, said it starkly: There are beavers everywhere.  Laura Hajduk, a biologist with the states Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, had little to offer them. When beavers are trapped, others move in to replace them. And, she said, you can breach a beaver dam, but I guarantee you that within 24 hours if the beavers are still there it will be repaired. Beavers are the ultimate ecosystem engineers.  That was not what Mr. Pavlik was hoping to hear.  He is not alone in his dismay, and it is not just beavers. Around the nation, decades of environmental regulation, conservation efforts and changing land use have brought many species, like beavers, so far back from the brink that they are viewed as nuisances. As Stuart Pimm, a conservation ecologist at Duke University, put it, We are finding they are inconvenient.  In Florida,  alligators were once nearly wiped out by hunters; today the state maintains a roster of trappers who remove thousands of nuisance gators each year. The pesticide DDT once left the Pelican State, Louisiana, bereft of the birds; today wildlife organizations say fishermen must guard their bait and catches from the birds. In California, warnings about marauding mountain lions are posted on hiking trails.  There were tens and maybe hundreds of millions of beavers in North America before it was settled by Europeans, whose craze for beaver hats is often cited as motivating much of the exploration of the continent. But by 1900 their numbers had been reduced to about 100,000, almost all of them in Canada. As farming faded and the forests reclaimed much of their lost ground, Castor canadensis made a spectacular comeback. Today there are believed to be 10 million to 15 million of the animals in North America, and they are regarded as pests in much of their range.  In 1999, for example, a colony moved into the Tidal Basin in Washington, where they cut down a number of cherry trees before being trapped and removed. According to the Department of Agriculture, states like Mississippi, North Carolina and Wisconsin lose tens of millions of dollars each year from beaver damage to buildings, roads, timber, crops and trout streams.  In Massachusetts, beavers had vanished by the early 19th century, killed by trappers and dispossessed by farmers who turned woods into pastures. But they have had a particularly strong comeback here as farmland has returned to woodland. The change has also brought an unwelcome abundance of coyotes, black bears, moose and other species. Wild turkeys, once extirpated, now go one-on-one with suburban pedestrians in what biologists call misguided efforts to establish their dominance in a pecking order.  The advice from the experts on beavers is to find a way to live with them and reduce the damage. As Ms. Hajduk said during the Concord meeting, chicken-wire fencing can keep beavers out of culverts or away from prized trees. Companies market water flow devices called beaver deceivers or beaver bafflers that can be installed in dams to lower the water level of beaver ponds. Some people even coat prized trees with paint and sand in the hope that the grit will discourage gnawing beavers. If people want to live in a more natural environment, they must adjust to animals, even inconvenient animals, Dr. Pimm said in a telephone interview. You have to accept Mother Nature as she is, he said.  John Livsey, Mr. Pavliks boss and the town engineer in Lexington, has firsthand experience with the beaver problem. The animals are building dams in wooded areas traversed by the towns sewer lines, he said, and as water rises, it seeps through manholes into the sewer pipes.  The town must pay for the treatment of this extra inflow.  Though Mr. Livsey said he could not put a dollar figure on it, its a lot of money.  The town periodically obtains permits to breach dams and trap and kill the animals, but destroying a beaver dam can have unintended consequences downstream, from flooding a neighbors property to destroying habitat crucial for rare amphibians or silting up streams where endangered Atlantic salmon spawn. Some people date the beavers return to Massachusetts to 1928, when beavers were observed in West Stockbridge and greeted with enthusiasm, according to the Web site of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. By 1946, there were an estimated 300 beavers, all west of the Connecticut River.   If a beaver dam is breached, it will be repaired within 24 hours.  Today, Ms. Hajduk said, there are at least 30,000 beavers [ERROR should be 70,000], all over the state.  In her presentation in Concord, Ms. Hajduk said that beavers, which can reach 60 pounds and are the largest rodents in North America, are monogamous animals that mate for life and like to eat plants that grow underwater. They look for places to build a dam and create a pond. Their webbed feet are adapted for life in the water, and their front teeth, four giant incisors, are useful for cutting the trees they use as raw materials for their dams and lodges. (They also eat the bark, particularly in the winter.)  Typically, she said, they work at night, building a stick-and-mud lodge in the pond or at its edge, with its entrance underwater for safety. A pair of beavers typically live 10 years, producing a litter of two or more kits each spring. The kits stay with their parents until they are 2 years old, then disperse in search of their own territories.  Though the people at the meeting found it hard to believe or irrelevant the beavers have produced many benefits for the states environment, Ms. Hajduk said. She pointed to some of them after the meeting, when she and Mary B. Griffin, the states commissioner of fish and game, met at the Boxborough Station Wildlife Management Area, a state reserve northwest of here.  At first glance it hardly seemed like an ideal spot for beavers. Route 2, a major east-west highway, runs along one edge; a much-used rail line runs along another. You are really surrounded by a lot of suburbia and roadways, Ms. Hajduk said.  But trees had reclaimed the land between the ancient stone walls. Beavers have taken full advantage of the site, damming a small stream with mud and branches to impound a 45-acre pond perhaps five or six feet deep, with a lodge in the middle.  As she and Dr. Griffin neared the pond, a group of wood ducks, alarmed by their approach, went squawking into the air. It was good to see them, Dr. Griffin said they are among the species favored by hunters that the state is trying to encourage. She pointed to an osprey sitting on a dead tree. Ospreys were almost wiped out by DDT but are now back in Massachusetts, and this one was taking advantage of beaver-created habitat. Just then, a great blue heron glided to a landing in the pond, another guest of the beavers.  Impoundments like this one absorb water, especially in the spring, when streams swell with rain and snow runoff, Dr. Griffin said. And when the impoundment eventually silts up and the beavers move on, their dam will decay and the pond will drain, leaving unusually rich soil behind.  These beaver meadows stand out like rich little oases, Ms. Hajduk said.  Dr. Griffin said she and her colleagues emphasized these advantages in urging people to adopt tolerance and coexistence as a first line of defense.  Mr. Livsey can embrace this concept, up to a point, perhaps because he admires the animals engineering ability.  They're amazingly skilled creatures, actually, he said. They seem to be able to put things where they want them. I wish they worked for us.

 

Rise in beaver population after trapping ban leads to flooded property   (back to top)
MetroWest Daily News
Ken McGagh/Daily News staff
By Aaron Wasserman/Daily News staff
Posted Jun 07, 2009 @ 12:16 AM

HOLLISTON, MA - Last month, a breached beaver dam flooded Bob Szymanski's property in Milford. Several months before, it was a very intact one in Holliston that swelled the Hopping Brook so it nearly washed over a small bridge.  Beaver habitats routinely clash with those of humans in metro Boston. Other recent reports come from Westborough, Concord, Bolton and Andover, where a hasty dam breaching flooded a charity golf event.  The issue of beaver management isn't purely academic. Untimely dams can flood houses, or muck up sewer systems and roads - costly problems to repair. In Westborough, the town set aside $5,000 in this year's budget just to deal with beavers.  Beavers' ecological benefits are also substantial, as beavers, North America's largest native rodents, create wetlands that nurture other wildlife, control flooding and purify water.  "When a lot of people think of beavers now, it's not as the animal that creates wetlands or was responsible for the earlier colonial fur trade. In a lot of eyes, it's now the pest species that flooded my septic system," said Laura Hajduk, furbearer biologist with the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, who highlighted the mammal's unheralded talents.  "Beavers, by the nature of their activities, are ecosystem engineers. Aside from man, they're really the only mammal that can alter their ecosystem to meet their survival needs," she said.  Massachusetts' beaver population grew dramatically following a 1996 ballot referendum that banned most types of traps, such as legholds and snares. As the number of trappings plummeted, the number of beavers went from 24,000 in 1996 to about 70,000 five years later, according to state figures. (The state hasn't officially tracked the population size since then.)  But attributing the population growth only to the ballot referendum is probably too simplistic, said Peter Busher, a Boston University professor of natural sciences who studies beavers. The beaver population was naturally accelerating at the time, and the number of trappers beforehand wasn't enough to control beavers alone, he said.  In fact, at the state level, Busher said he believes the population has stabilized or slightly declined, but in specific spots may still be growing.  "With beavers, it's not so much that we have 60,000 animals or 200,000 animals, it's more where they are and what impact they're having on the human population," Busher said.  Beavers and humans are also attracted to similar habitats - low-lying wet areas - which compounds the problem, said Linda Huebner, deputy director of advocacy for Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which was a lead backer of the 1996 ballot question.  "The issue with beavers is not that we have too many of them, but that beavers and humans are coming into conflict in particular places, and the good news is we can solve many of those problems non-lethally," she said.  Trapping is still allowed in Massachusetts, from November to mid-April, but only in box or cage traps. Other methods for dealing with beavers include fencing and water control devices that slyly lower dams' water levels so beavers don't notice. In emergencies, when public safety or health are threatened, local Boards of Health can issue a permit any time of year to use a snare trap to catch a beaver.  But Hajduk said beavers are spreading into "sub-prime beaver habitats" because of their numbers - places that aren't ideal for them, "but given that some of the best habitats are already occupied, beavers are forced into habitats that they could occupy but aren't preferred."  Westborough's public health director, Paul McNulty, said beavers only appeared in town about 10 years ago. "Now it's every year and we have them in every part of town," he said.  In Holliston, during a recent brief hike along Hopping Brook, the town's conservation agent, Patricia Brennan, described how the town manages its beaver dams. Trained as an environmental scientist, Brennan said she studied beavers before coming to town, but is now very well versed.  "When I started, I was informed we'd have beavers once in a while, maybe once a year, and it's been nearly constant since we had the issue with the well," she said referring to a 2007 incident when a dam threatened one of the town's drinking wells.  "The problems with beavers aren't the beavers themselves, but the flooding from their engineering," Brennan said. "The beavers themselves are like muskrats, and you don't hear people complaining about muskrats."
Aaron Wasserman can be reached at 508-626-4424 or awasserm@cnc.com.

 

Milford beaver dam breaks causing flash floods   (back to top)

By Danielle Ameden/Daily News staff
Milford Daily News story
Posted Jun 02, 2009 @ 10:49 PM

 

MILFORD, MA - Trying to tackle the beaver problem on Ivy Brook, the Conservation Commission took a firsthand look yesterday at the problems dam breaks are causing in north Milford.  On a visit to 10 Clarridge Circle, commissioners met with homeowner Bob Szymanski who worries his property will keep getting flooded if, as he suspects, people continue breaking beaver dams upstream from him.  "I have lost somewhere over three feet of rock that has slid down," Szymanski said of the retaining walls on his property that Ivy Brook flows through. Szymanski brought the problem to the commission's attention last month after he suspected someone broke a big dam the beavers had built. He said the destruction caused a huge rush of water "like Niagara Falls."  The morning after the board's meeting, which he attended, someone apparently tampered with the dam the beavers had rebuilt because another, albeit smaller, rush of water occurred, Szymanski told the commissioners.  "Somebody did something up there," he said. Commission Chairman Robert Buckley told Szymanski the commission will investigate the problem, but it may be difficult to resolve.  "Beavers are tough - there are cases where, really, they win," Buckley said, standing on a little bridge over the brook on Szymanski's property.  Commissioners need to get in touch with the owner of the landlocked piece of property where the beavers have built their dams and habitat on Ivy Brook. When they have permission, they will tour that area, Buckley told Szymanski.  He said the commission will also speak to its consultant and involve the Board of Health, which has some jurisdiction when it comes to beavers.  Commissioners could issue a "cease and desist" order against the property owner, even though he's seemingly unaware of the beaver problem, Buckley said.  "The Conservation Commission has to take some action and usually it's the land owner. They have have to post no trespass signs, do something," he said.  Also along on the site visit were Town Engineer Mike Santora and Conservation Commission members Joe Zacchilli and Michael Giampietro.  Szymanski showed photos of when water had rushed downstream. He recounted how there have been five apparent dam breaks since the end of last year, including the "bad one" on April 25.  "That's a very odd situation to have basically a flash flood," Buckley said. Prior to last year and since 1986, Szymanski said, there had only been three incidents. One was during Hurricane Bob and two others were probably during rainstorms, he said.  Buckley said the commission will talk about the beaver problem when it meets June 18.
Danielle Ameden can be reached at 508-634-7521 or dameden@cnc.com.


Coyote Forces 2 Logan Runways To Briefly Close   (back to top)
Coyote Killed By Truck
BOSTON (WBZ) ― May 6, 2009 8:15 pm US/Eastern

A coyote running free at Boston's Logan International Airport briefly forced the closing of two runways. The Boston Globe reports the animal was killed Wednesday when it was hit by workers who were using a truck to try to contain it.  The coyote was discovered by grounds crews on Wednesday morning, and the runways were shut down. Crews in trucks tried to keep the coyote away from the runways while they contacted animal control officers. But the animal bolted in front of one of the vehicles.  Massachusetts Port Authority spokesman Phil Orlandella says animals rarely get loose on the airport's runways, but it happens three or four times a year. He said the coyote didn't cause any major flight delays.

 

Vicious attack of dog in Middleboro brings attention to seasonal suburban threat   (back to top)

By Alice C. Elwell

ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT

Posted May 04, 2009 @ 01:54 AM

Last update May 04, 2009 @ 01:50 PM

 

MIDDLEBORO, MA - A brown shadow swooped in and grabbed Hattie, a seven pound Yorkshire Terrier, by the neck just yards from where owner Wilfred J. Forcier stood watching.  It was 4 a.m. last Wednesday when Hattie pestered Forcier to go outside. Her timing was unusual, but Forcier a retired police officer stood at the backdoor of his Susan Lane home to keep watch.  But within seconds, something had Hattie in its jaws, and was speeding off into the darkness. Barefoot and in his underwear, Forcier gave chase, but the animal disappeared into the night with Hattie in its jaws.  It was prancing like a cat with a rat, Forcier said. All I could think of was getting her away from it.  Forcier resumed searching after getting dressed and putting on his glasses, but he never found Hatties limp and lifeless body until daylight.  While Forcier never clearly saw the attacker, Laura Hajduk, a biologist at the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, said it was most likely a coyote. This time of year is pup-rearing season, and the mother coyote requires more food than usual, she said.  The thing about coyotes, they'll feed on just about anything," Hajduk said. That includes small animals to insects and plant matter. A messy bird feeder, an uncovered compost pile or pet food dishes outside can all serve as a dinner call to wild animals.  Coyote populations have been on the rise in recent years, and Marion Larson, information and education biologist with Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said that's due largely to the greater availability of food including pets.  Coyotes are omnivores. Their primary food is fruit, berries, and small rodents. In suburban areas, they will go after unprotected pets, said Larson. Also, people should not leave garbage out at night. It provides an all-you-can-eat buffet for coyotes, rats, and foxes. They should put garbage out in the morning.  For coyote hunter Richard J. Bowen of Bridgewater, Hattie's attacker has all the earmarks of a coyote.  Its got to be a coyote. A coyote can kill a Yorkshire terrier in one bite, he said.  The chances of one hurting a human are slim, but could happen, he said. While coyotes are still skittish around humans, Bowen said they are losing their fear of humans because of carelessness and complacency.  Its only a matter of time before someone gets attacked around here, he predicts.  Bowen said coyotes are powerful opportunist hunters, and while their primary food consists of small prey frogs, snakes, mice, rabbits, woodchucks, even grasshoppers homeowners are providing a veritable smorgasbord in their backyards. Bird feeders, open trash and garbage and house cats all draw a coyote to a backyard.  Although the high school is close to Wednesdays attack, Hajduk said it doesn't sound like a public safety concern, explaining there's only been three attacks on humans in the last 60 years.  Coyotes can hunt in a range of nearly 20 square miles, but they are a territorial creature, and that's where human intervention comes into play. Hajduk said if a coyote is found in a backyard, try and scare it off by banging pans, blowing whistles and air horns, even squirting them with a hose or throwing tennis balls to mark your territory.  Don't be intimidated, she said. Show it this is your territory. They are territorial animals, so they will understand.  But she said children should be kept away.  Teach them coyotes are not dogs and their pups are not puppies, they're wild animals. Educate kids.  She said the best thing a child can do if they come face to face with a coyote, open your jacket, put your arms above you head and slowly back away, maintaining eye contact.    If you start to run, the instinct to follow may kick in, she said.

 

 Beaver Damage on the Mend and More!   (back to top)
Wachusett Greenway website 8/28/09

 

WEST BOYLSTON, MA - Rebuilding of the trail in Oakdale is under way (8-28-09)  Wachusett Greenways Welcomes Donations to Accelerate Repair.  As you may know, the Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) accessible from Thomas Street in West Boylston westward to the I-190 bridge has been temporarily closed since early May, when a 25-foot section of the trail washed away due to the efforts of some industrious beavers.  Wachusett Greenways, the Town of West Boylston and the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) have jointly arrived at a plan to rebuild the damaged trail. This work will include improvement of the trail from Thomas Street to the washout. This section of trail has had problems with water collection since it was built in 1997.  We anticipate this work will be completed and the trail reopened in time for Family Fun Day and the Springdale Mill Celebration, scheduled for Sept. 26.  Though this section of the trail will remain closed until repairs are complete, all other sections of the trail are open, including the section west of I-190 to River Street in Holden and on to Manning Street and Route 31. The trail sections in Sterling and Rutland are also open.  And thanks to the tireless efforts of our volunteer trail crews, nearly all ice storm damage has been cleared from the trail. Some work remains to chip brush and to remove other debris along the trail shoulder. We welcome new volunteers to help return the rail trail to its former beauty.  Looking forward, work on a new section of the rail trail, west of Muddy Pond in Oakham to the Route 122 crossing, is well under way.  We regret the length of time it has taken to repair the washout, but this is a major undertaking, requiring careful planning to avoid similar problems in the future. Wachusett Greenways welcomes donations to help defer the cost of repairs. Contributions can be made directly to Wachusett Greenways online or by mail, Box 121, Holden 01520. We must raise $12,000 in donor contributions in addition to the funds which Wachusett Greenways and the Town of West Boylston have set aside. Please send your generous gift today.

A Weymouth neighborhood is on edge after a family dog in one
neighborhood barely survived a coyote attack.
    (back to top)

Pet Cat Killed By Predator

 

Weymouth, MA - April 20, 2009 - TheBostonChannel.com

 

The coyote snatched "Rusty" right off his leash while he was tied to a mailbox.  The shih tzu's owner said she saw the coyote running down the street with the dog in its mouth.  "I opened the front door and saw the dog was gone. I looked up and saw a coyote with my dog in its mouth. I started yelling, and two houses down, saw the dog with blood in middle of street. I must have scared him away, "said Elyse Quinlan.  Rusty survived and was treated for deep teeth wounds to the stomach, back and neck.  The coyote's first victim on the block wasn't so lucky. Residents think a pet cat was killed by the animal.  "The neighbors cat, too. They were telling me they found his fur in the other yard," Quinlan said.  Weymouth police said unless a coyote is reported as sick, there's nothing they can do. The public was advised to stay alert and be careful. 

 

Raynham coyote attacks finally prompt recourse   (back to top)

www.WickedLocal.com By Tim Faulkner, Fri Feb 27, 2009, 10:42 AM EST

Raynham, MA - After a gang of coyotes attacked and killed a family dog, Terry Den Besten, owner of Den Besten Farm on Locust Street, is taking action.  "They've started a war and I'll finish it," he said.  Over the past two years, coyotes have been terrorizing his 30-acre animal farm, eating cats, young goats, chickens and frightening other animals.  In recent months, the coyotes have become more aggressive, jumping four-foot fences into animal pens and entering barns in search of prey.  "They are very bold," said the burly former construction company owner. Wednesday night, about a dozen coyotes ran through the stable area and the backyard of his three-story brick house, howling and looking for a meal.  Several family dogs were roaming the backyard when a coyote snatched away a 9-year-old miniature Doberman pinscher. Den Besten's wife, Donna, gave chase, yelling in an attempt to scare off the coyotes.  But a few minutes later the 20-pound dog was found lifeless about 100 yards from the house lying on a dirt road.  "It's kind of scary with a pack of them," Terry Den Besten said.  "It was like an attack of the wild."  In recent years he has installed sturdier fences and brought in a donkey, horses and llamas to frighten the coyotes.  When that failed his only recourse, until now, has been to lock the animals in barns and sheds at night. But with two young grandchildren living in his home, Den Besten doesn't want the next victim to be a human. Armed with night-vision goggles, a .22-caliber hunting rifle and a battery-powered coyote caller, the retired Marine intends to make the hunters the hunted. "They are going to be dealt with, that's for sure," he said.  After notifying neighbors - many of them living in recently built houses on land that was once coyote habitat - and the police officials, Den Besten intends to stalk the predators over the next few nights. Biologist Dick Turner, of the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said shooting one of the coyotes may be enough to scare the rest of the pack from going near humans again. Coyote encounters, he said, are more frequent this time of year. "This is the breeding season and when they're the most vocal." And the sightings are likely to increase. Over the last 50 years, the coyote population has spread to every community across the Commonwealth.  Raynham Police Chief Joseph Pacheco said coyotes weren't in Raynham 20 years ago. And the attack Wednesday night, he said, was the first time a coyote had entereda building the shed where the goats were kept. Pacheco condoned Den Besten's plan to kill the coyotes, saying farmers have the right to kill predators that attack livestock. As a precaution, Pacheco warned school officials about the aggressive coyotes. At least two coyotes sighting have been reported at the three Raynham public schools since September.  Although Den Besten's farm and the schools sit on opposite sides of the heavily traveled Route 24, Pacheco noted that both properties are part of a wooded area that extends north to Interstate 495. "I concerned for family pets as well as kids, especially when the weather gets warmer," Pacheco said. Fisheries and Wildlife Biologist Laura Hajduk said coyotes are more of a nuisance than a threat to humans.  Only three reports of coyote bites on humans have been reported in the state, she said, and a single fatality occurred in California in the 1980s.  "Its very very rare they ever attack people."  Her advice is to avoid coyotes and never feed them. But if the dog-like animals get too close she suggest banging pots and pans and making loud noises to remind them of the consequences of intruding on humans.
tfaulkner@tauntongazette.com

 

Saving Charro from coyotes Attack on 65-pound Essex greyhound stuns owners   (back to top)

Glouster Daily Times online (http://www.gloucestertimes.com)

By Robert Cann, Staff Writer

February 17, 2009

 

Essex, MA - Because of this, she's always kept a close eye on her 10-year-old greyhound, Charro, when the dog is allowed to roam alone in her grassy backyard, enclosed by honeysuckle bushes. "Otherwise," said Morser, 86, "I don't think we'd have her today."  This past Saturday around 3 p.m., while Charro was sniffing the grass about 50 yards behind Morser's home, she saw what she thought were two police dogs moving toward the dog. She said, since Charro likes other dogs, the greyhound went toward the animals.  When the pair attacked Charro, Morser instantly recognized that they were coyotes and hollered for her 89-year-old husband Calvin.  Morser said she then "grabbed a pot with a lid and tore out into the backward," clanging the top against the pot. She had read that doing such a thing would scare away coyotes.  She said that, by the time she got outside, Charro and the coyotes had moved into one of the bushes and that she could no longer see them.  She's not sure if it was her banging the pot and lid together that scared the coyotes away, but moments after she left her house Charro began to limp towards her. When Morser and her husband got Charro inside they discovered their pet had serious cuts and bite marks on its hind legs, back and abdomen. They called the Gloucester-based Cape Ann Veterinary Hospital, and the owners, Dr. Jeffrey French and his wife Dr. Barbara Reid, had not gone home yet. The veterinarians told Morser to bring Charro in immediately. Morser and her husband wrapped Charro's wounds with a towel and, with a great deal of effort, lifted the 65-pound dog into the back of their vehicle. At the hospital, Charro was in surgery for two hours and required between 15 and 20 sutures in three different areas, French said yesterday. Yesterday, Charro was doing well, but was being held in quarantine and being monitored for rabies, French said. Charro was up-to-date on rabies vaccinations at the time of the attack, and was treated once more when first admitted to the animal hospital. Massachusetts Fish and Game representatives were unavailable for comment yesterday because of the holiday. Lt. John Wimsatt, a conservation officer at New Hampshire Fish and Game, said that rabies isn't as common in coyotes as in raccoons and foxes, but it can still occur. French also noted that "people often think that large dogs are not targets for coyotes," but that's not the case. Wimsatt said that attacks by coyotes on domestic animals are uncommon, though it's not rare for them to attack prey as large a 65-pound greyhound; they often hunt whitetail deer. Wimsatt said that such an attack was unusual and that it likely wouldn't happen again. "The public doesn't need to be overly alarmed," said Wimsatt. "Take normal precautions with your pets and keep your eyes on them when they're outside." Wimsatt added, however, that animal control officers should be notified in case of an attack. French, who said that "people are getting used to seeing them all the time," added that he planned to contact Gloucester's Animal Control Department when it opened today.  In that vein, a Rockport man had one of his golden retrievers tackled by a coyote in December after the wild animal chased his second golden retriever from the edge of the woods where it was sniffing, unleashed. The man and his wife yelled at the coyote and it ran away. That dog was not brought to the vet, and French noted that there have not been any animals brought
in recently as a result of coyote attacks. Another Rockport couple, however, lost their cat to coyotes last July. "Animals like this do present circumstances that can alarm residents," said Wimsatt. "Just use good common sense when taking care of your pets."

Robert Cann can be reached at gt_reporter@gloucestertimes.com

 

Coyotes reportedly kill small dog in Milford [MA]   (back to top)  
Written by Jill K. Dion   
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Milford, MA - The Milford Police Department is warning residents to keep an eye on their small pets in light of a recent attack by what was believed to be coyotes.

A resident of Todd Drive reported to police on Sunday that their family pet, a beagle terrier, had been attacked in their yard late Saturday night. The homeowner told police they heard a commotion and a dog yelping and, upon looking outside, they observed what they believed to be coyotes attacking their dog. The dog was taken to Shoreline Animal Clinic for treatment of injuries sustained during the attack, and after bringing the dog home, it died this morning.  Police conducted a neighborhood survey and learned that coyotes have been seen in the area over the past two weeks. Police have contacted the Milford Animal Control Division and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding the incident. Police advise that residents do not leave their pets outside unattended and refrain from feeding wild animals, including spreading bird seed.  If residents spot a coyote they should contact the DEP, Wild Life Division at (860) 424-3011. For tips about coyotes, refer to the DEP Web site ct.gov/DEP.  In the event a coyote is acting aggressively, call your local police department immediately, police said in a prepared statement.  Police can be reached at 878-6551.

 

 

Rabid fox attacks man   (back to top)

Milford Daily News - January 29, 2009

Danielle Ameden can be reached at 508-634-7521 or dameden@cnc.com.

 

MILFORD, MA - Steve Lemoine never wants to see a fox again. Ever. He's lost his love for the wild animal after having to stomp a rabid red fox to death on Monday when it attacked him outside his Milford office. The 50-year-old Rhode Island man said he fell prey while taking a cigarette break at Birchwood Business Park, where he works for the environmental engineering company Norfolk Ram.  He counts himself lucky to be OK."A fox just came running out of nowhere and bit me in the leg," he said. "I kicked it away and it came back and bit me in the leg again and wouldn't let go. It was pretty scary."  The incident led his co-workers to carry around sticks and ski poles yesterday, fearing another attack.  Public Health Director Paul Mazzuchelli yesterday said rabies is not unusual in town, but it's uncommon for a person to be attacked. The best preventative advice, he said, is for people to assume that any wild animal is rabid.  "Even though they may look cute or cuddly, stay away," he advised.  In Lemoine's case, the ferocious young fox bit through his jeans, and left tooth and claw marks on the front of his left leg.  After Lemoine kicked the fox away and it latched back onto his leg, he said he used his Boy Scout skills and reacted, suspecting it was rabid.  "I said, you're dead buddy - you're dead," he recalled.  He stomped on the animal's throat with steel-toed work shoes, and stayed put for about 20 minutes, he recalled, while waiting for co-workers to help.  When a couple of colleagues drove by in a truck, they got him a sledgehammer that he used to hit the fox on the head to make sure it was dead.  After Lemoine killed the animal, he said he put the carcass in a cooler, which the Animal Control Department later picked up.  Tests came back positive yesterday from the state's rabies testing lab in Jamaica Plain, confirming the fox had rabies, Mazzuchelli said.  Lemoine, who lives in Cumberland, R.I., said he drove himself to Milford Regional Medical Center on Monday to get seven rabies shots and a tetanus booster.  He still needs four more booster shots on a specified schedule.  Knowing the disease is fatal, he wanted to get treatment even though his wounds seemed superficial.  "Rabies is a serious thing - you've got to watch out," he said.  Mazzuchelli said Lemoine reacted the right way by seeking prompt medical attention.  For residents who are concerned about rabid animals, Mazzuchelli noted it's important that people not leave food outside their homes.  And as a first line of defense, he said people also need to keep their pets vaccinated. The Board of Health offers a rabies clinic every April.  Lemoine, who enjoys hunting for ducks and deer, said he doesn't regret killing the fox - but at around 20 pounds, it was "big enough."  "I wouldn't want to tangle with one that was bigger."  During the attack, Lemoine remained calm, said co-worker Nate Gardner, a geologist at Norfolk Ram who came across it.  "I wouldn't have known what to do, and he knew right what to do."  As for the attack, "It's an act of nature," Lemoine said, but it had a real impact on him. "I used to like foxes," he said. "I don't like them now."

 

 

Beaver dam flood woes hard to ignore   (back to top)

By Connie Paige

Globe Correspondent / January 25, 2009

LEXINGTON, MA - A brook flooded an area in north Lexington off Bedford Street during recent torrential rains, threatening to gush into the sewer system and cause overflows of raw sewage. The problem: An enterprising beaver was constructing a dam. The solution: The beaver was trapped and killed.  Beavers like the 50-pound male trapped last month are the stuff of suburban legend, as the furry rodents migrate into congested neighborhoods and dam up brooks and streams.  "I think one of the things people need to remember is we don't really have predators that control beaver any more, such as wolves, so they're not being killed naturally," said Patricia Huckery, northeast district manager for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. "The only option is management."  Wildlife management can mean extermination, but there are other options under the law that have been used in the western suburbs. State officials recommend relieving flooding caused by beavers by breaching their dams. One technique includes fencing that impedes reentry to the area and rerouting water flow underground or through pipes so the beaver cannot hear the tinkling, running-water sound that attracts them to a site to build a dam. Or residents can take the wetlands attitude to leave it to beaver. Along with Lexington, Concord and Bedford have had enterprising beaver populations in recent months. Sometimes the animals are welcomed, but other times not, as they cause flooding that can become a public health problem or inflict property damage.  Stanley J. Sosnicki, Concord's environmental health inspector, said while beavers can be a nuisance, many residents have learned to live with them.  "I'd say they're a net plus," Sosnicki said.  "Most people around here are used to wildlife, and they tend to respect them."  On the plus side, beavers create wetlands by damming streams and forming shallow ponds.  The wetlands provide a habitat for diverse plants and animals, such as deer, bats, otter, herons, waterfowl, songbirds, salamanders, turtles, frogs, and fish.  The wetlands also control downstream flooding by storing and slowly releasing storm water. They also remove excess nutrients, toxic chemicals, and sediment, and can recharge groundwater.  This is no solace to the homeowner with a flooded basement or the school child trying to navigate a street flowing with raw sewage.  The problem in Lexington occurred off busy Bedford Street between Ivan Street and Hadley Road.  The beaver dam on Simonds Brook had caused water to run to the tops of sewer manholes.  John Livsey, the town engineer, said while the flooding did not overwhelm the sewer system, it could have if action had not been taken. The town hired a licensed trapper, who snagged the beaver on Dec. 24.  Bedford did the same, issuing a permit earlier this month to a trapper to catch a beaver on Veterans Administration property, according to Bedford's health agent and inspector, Joseph W. Knotts, who said he issued seven such permits in 2008.   In Concord, a beaver dam flooded the area last summer where the Police and Fire Departments are located, as well as the neighborhood across the street. In that case, the beavers were trapped and killed, and the dam removed, Sosnicki said. But neighbors living on Spencer Brook Road have decided to leave alone the beavers that periodically build dams on Spencer Brook and flood the area, he said.  Sosnicki said he issued three or four permits last year, and believes the beaver population is growing. "We're seeing more and more of them," he said. "The area's just conducive to beavers. We have a lot of wet areas."  No one knows for sure how many beavers there are across the state or whether their numbers are growing or shrinking, according to Laura Hajduk, the state wildlife agency's furbearer biologist.  Because of overzealous hunting, beavers were absent from Massachusetts from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, when they started making a comeback after farmers abandoned their fields for city jobs or moved to more fertile ground in the Midwest, according to the state wildlife agency's website.  By the early 1990s, the beaver population statewide was estimated at a little more than 22,000.  In 1996, voters passed a ballot question banning leghold traps, deemed to cause pain to snared animals, and the beaver population soared to an estimated 70,000.  And then, in 2001, another law went into effect that gave local health boards - and not the state wildlife agency - jurisdiction over emergency licenses to trap animals  considered a public health threat or cause of severe property damage. While hunters had been reporting their harvests to the state wildlife agency, now there is no way to keep track of how many are killed, Hajduk said.  Still, beavers are likely to continue to venture into suburban living until the habitat becomes too developed.  For instance, Christine Connolly Sharkey, director of Health and Human Services in Arlington, said she has heard no reports of beavers in town since she started working there in 2000.  Donna Moultrop, Belmont's health director, said the only beaver report there in recent memory turned out to be an unfounded rumor.

Connie Paige can be reached at connie_paige@yahoo.com.

Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

Emergency permit targets beavers in Holliston   (back to top)

By David Rielly/TAB staff

www.wickedlocal.com MetroWest Daily News

Fri. Dec 26, 2008 10:45 EST

 

 HOLLISTON, MA - The Board of Health has issued an emergency permit for a Cross Street company to use lethal traps to remove beavers whose dam may threaten the building's fire suppression system.  The permit gives Avery Dennison Co. 10 days from last Thursday to trap the beavers, said Board of Health Chairwoman Anita Ballesteros.  The board gave the office product distributor a previous permit to remove the animals in October. The company did so, but the beavers returned, and so did the problems, Ballesteros said.  Last fall, a company representative told the board a dam had raised the level of Chicken Brook within an inch of a bridge used to access the facility. Behind the dam, stagnant water backed up, full of debris that could clog a sprinkler system that pumps water directly from the brook in the case of a fire, the company said in October.  Holliston Fire Chief Michael Cassidy called the problem a safety hazard. While the board would prefer different traps be used, worries about the fire system spurred its members to issue the permit, Ballesteros said. "We are concerned because this relates to the fire suppression system," she said. "If there were, God forbid, a fire, and anyone was hurt or killed in the fire, it was left on our heads."Regardless of what traps are used, beavers that are caught are killed. With beaver problems all over Massachusetts, the Bay State does not generally allow the animals to be moved elsewhere. Under the first permit, traps would catch beavers and they would later be euthanized. The new permit allows traps that actually kill the animals. Ballesteros was unsure how exactly the traps work.  Board member Richard Maccagnano had opposed lethal traps because he said other animals could be caught in them. Ballesteros said it is sometimes difficult to set aside personal convictions, but the Board of Health's charge is to safeguard public health and safety.  This is not the first time Holliston has grappled with beaver problems. In summer 2007, after attempts to find alternatives, the Conservation Commission gave the go-ahead to trap and kill beavers in Bogastow Brook.  The animals had caused flooding near one of the town's drinking water wells. State officials warned the town that the potential for parasites to get into the water posed an immediate threat.  The state has a regulated beaver trapping season. Avery Dennison needed a first permit in October because that season had not yet begun. The season started Nov. 1, but a permit is required any time a lethal trap is used.  A contractor hired by Avery Dennison only uses lethal traps, Ballesteros said. With the holidays approaching, it seemed unlikely Avery Dennison could find another contractor right away, so the board acted to make sure the company could address the potential safety problem.  If the emergency permit expires before beavers have been killed, Ballesteros said she will ask the company to consider other trapping methods."Nobody really wants to use those traps," she said.

 

(David Riley can be reached at 508-626-3919 or driley@cnc.com.)

 

Officer says he thwarted coyote's attack on woman   (back to top)

The Salem News online

November 27, 2008

By Paul Leighton Staff writer

 

BEVERLY, MA -  A Beverly police officer said he gunned his cruiser between a woman and a rapidly charging coyote to prevent the animal from attacking her in St. Mary's Cemetery two weeks ago.

Patrolman Gene Bettencourt said he grabbed the woman and got her safely into her van as the coyote ran off into the woods. "If I wasn't there, who knows what that thing would've done to that lady," he said.

 

Police say the city's animal services department trapped an 80-pound coyote in the cemetery last Friday and had the animal euthanized by a veterinarian. Patrolman John McCarthy, the department spokesman, said police can't be certain it was the same coyote, but there have been no reports of coyotes in the area since then.  "If somebody does see one, call us at the station," McCarthy said.  Bettencourt said he was on routine patrol in St. Mary's Cemetery on Nov. 15 when a man walking his dog told him he saw a "huge animal" on the hill at the back of the Brimbal Avenue cemetery. When Bettencourt drove up the hill, "I couldn't believe my eyes," he said.  "It almost looked like a wolf," he said.  As Bettencourt called the police station to report the coyote sighting, a woman got out of a green van and walked toward a gravestone. The coyote then took off and started running toward the woman, he said.  "I said to the dispatcher, 'I gotta go. The coyote's charging a lady.' I drove my Charger to cut it off. I jumped out and grabbed the lady and got her back in her van. She took off, and the coyote bolted into the wooded area."  Bettencourt said the coyote stopped about 40 to 50 feet away when he pulled his cruiser in front of the woman.  After the incident, the city's animal services department planted a trap that is designed to pull a leash around an animal's neck as it is feeding. Last Friday, Bettencourt found a coyote caught in the trap in the cemetery, unhurt. McCarthy said the coyote was taken to a veterinarian and euthanized. Beverly Animal Services Officer James Lindley said coyotes are known to attack cats and small dogs but rarely pose a threat to humans.  "The way it charged that woman is not ordinary," he said.  Lindley said he doubted the coyote had rabies because a rabid animal would stand its ground and fight instead of fleeing.  Lindley said he and police have fielded many calls regarding coyote sightings in recent weeks. He said there has been a group of seven coyotes in the Sohier Road area and two or three more around St. Mary's Cemetery, but it's difficult to know exactly how many are in the city.  "It's really hard to put a count on them," he said. "They cover so much territory."  According to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife Web site, the eastern coyote moved into the central and western regions of Massachusetts in the 1950s and now lives in every town in Massachusetts, except on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.  Coyotes can reach weights of 50 to 60 pounds, but their weight can be easily overestimated because of their thick fur, according to the Web site. Dogs, red foxes and gray foxes  are often mistaken for coyotes.  The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Massachusetts Environmental Police Department are assisting Lindley in monitoring the situation, he said. Anyone who spots a coyote should call police at 978-922-1212.

 

Increase in beaver population linked to loosestrife spread    (back to top)
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA) Ellie Oleson
September 18, 2008


Massachusetts statewide issue - The proliferation of beavers in Massachusetts since many commonly used traps were banned in 1997 not only has led to flooded roadways, fields and yards, but has also helped an alarming spread of a foreign weed, which is choking out native plants and destroying wildlife habitat, according to a wetlands specialist.  Glenn E. Krevosky, owner of EBT Environmental Consultants Inc. of Oxford, said that in six years of research, he has found a strong correlation between beavers and the spread of purple loosestrife, an invasive, nonnative plant. "As the beaver builds its dam and floods a meadow or wetland, native plants are killed. When the beavers move out, the dam disintegrates, and there is a virgin area. Purple loosestrife loves a virgin area. It quickly fills the entire area, which becomes a monoculture, a field of nothing but purple loosestrife," he said.  Even where there are no beavers, an ever-increasing quantity of the tall pinkish-purple flower spikes can be seen growing in or near wetlands across the state. "It's taking over. It excludes native plants. Entire valleys in Pennsylvania are taken over by it. It's a true scourge, the biggest invasive plant we have," he said.  Uxbridge High School science teacher David S. Worden, who has been using a nonnative beetle to fight the weed in his community, said that Mr. Krevosky's theory about the connection between beavers and purple loosestrife sounded correct. "Purple loosestrife will start to grow in a wetland area. It has thick stems that take a lot of time to deteriorate. The stems stand tall and catch silt, which piles up and eventually becomes land, changing wetland to land. This plant can change an ecosystem and destroy biodiversity," he said.  Mr. Krevosky, who specializes in wetlands replication, said he tries to promote "shrub swamp" replication as often as possible, since shrubs or trees "shade out purple loosestrife."

 

Wild Animal Frightens Neighborhood    (back to top)

 

By Justine Judge
A potentially rabid fox is causing concern in a West Springfield neighborhood. The animal has bitten or scratched at least three people and is still on the loose.

CBS 3 Springfield 

Story Published: Nov 16, 2008 at 5:49 PM EST

Story Updated: Nov 17, 2008 at 12:12 PM EST

 

 

 

Gray Fox

 

There's not a soul in sight in the neighborhood surrounding the John Ashley School in West Springfield.

Most are staying inside for fear of an encounter with what many are saying is a rabid gray fox whose sunk its teeth into at least four people. Robert Pettengill is one of them. He told us "It felt like something just hit me in the back of the leg because it came from behind me and then I looked at it and was startled by it and then took off running and kicking it off me."  Pettengill was the animal's third victim on Friday. Just a few minutes earlier, it attacked two kindergarten students on the Ashley school playground.  Avory MacGrath was on the swing set when the animal came running out of the woods, ripped her shoe off and then ran away. But, it came back.  Avory said "It bit another girl", who didn't fair as well as Avory. Witnesses say the animal latched onto the other girl's thigh.  Pettengill didn't escape unscathed either. The animal clawed into his leg and sent him to the hospital Pettengill said "I had six shots Friday night and I'm still kind of sore from those but I have to go back Monday and get another set and then I have three more after that."  The animal also jumped onto the porch of a home on Althea Street where it attacked someone else. Environmental Police say the animal is still on the loose. So for now, everyone is looking over their shoulders for an animal most believe to be a gray fox.  MacGrath said "It looked like a husky but smaller with a long tail."  Pettengill said "It looked like a fox more than a fisher cat because detectives came and showed me pictures of both and I saw it as a fox."  Officials do want to point out that if in fact the animal is rabid, chances are it will die within a few days if it's not found before then.  But neighbors should still keep their children and pets inside.

 

http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/34554969.html

 

Numbers (and more) show fishers climbing   (back to top)

Photographer Daniel Keefe captured this fisher outside a Durham, N.H., home in 2003. It was attracted to a suet cage.
Photographer Daniel Keefe captured this fisher outside a Durham, N.H., home in 2003. It was attracted to a suet cage. (Daniel M. Keefe)
By James O'Brien Globe Correspondent / October 16, 2008

The fishers are coming - or so they say.

Earlier this year, an increase in sightings of the elusive animal in this area - including at least two reported attacks in Lexington - prompted wildlife officials to urge pet owners not to let their dogs and cats run free.  That advice still stands, and now officials at the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife say they are anticipating a record-setting number of captured fishers next month during trapping season for the carnivorous relative of the weasel.  Last year's was the second-highest fisher harvest on record, with 486 animals captured between Nov. 1 and Nov. 22. The year before, trappers nabbed 582. The state has kept such numbers since 1973, officials say, and has seen a steady increase in the number of animals caught.  "Clearly, the population seems to be growing," said Lisa Capone, spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.  Researchers at the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, or MassWildlife, say it appears the fisher, like a number of other wild animals such as bear and coyote, has also become more comfortable in urban settings.  "From studying reports and trappings, we can say that they have greatly expanded their range," said MassWildlife furbearer biologist Laura Hajduk. "In areas closer to Boston, they haven't been found there for very long."  While the fisher normally eats rodents and small game like rabbits, Hajduk, whose agency receives one to two calls per week for fisher sightings statewide, said kitchen garbage and outdoor pets represent an attractive alternative.  "The way we have suburban areas set up - we like private areas, little wooded areas - we provide cover for animals, and then we create a nice artificial food source," she said.  Marj Rines, a Living With Wildlife hotline naturalist with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, said she has had more calls about fishers in Eastern Massachusetts over the past two years.  Residents in Medford and Woburn have reported run-ins with the fisher, according to the organization. The animal has also been spotted in Billerica, Chelmsford, and Wilmington, as well as Derry and Hollis in New Hampshire, said New Hampshire wildlife photographer Daniel M. Keefe, who has captured close-up images of the animal. Chelmsford animal control officer Erik Merrill said he received 15 to 20 fisher complaints in his area this spring.  In March, a Lexington woman reported that a fisher dragged off her dog shortly after a neighbor spotted the animal and another neighbor reported that fishers had killed her cats.  "Usually when we have one attack, we have many," said Krista M. Vernaleken, a senior veterinary associate at the Bulger Animal Hospital in North Andover. "Owners who keep their pets indoors are very well aware of fishers - that's why they keep them indoors. Those who let them out don't understand the risk."  Vernaleken said outdoor cats are the most likely among domesticated animals to tangle with the fisher, and the results are usually ugly. "They're typically pretty aggressive attacks," she said. "Large wounds, tearing of the skin. They are much more aggressive attacks than another animal would be."  Long and low, the adult fisher typically weighs 16 pounds, according to MassWildlife, and can grow up to 3 feet, tip to tail. It hunts with retractable claws and a mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth, and its high-pitched screech is its hallmark. They are prized by some for their soft brown pelts.  The creature faced extermination in the Northeast in the 1800s, according to Mass Audubon, as unregulated logging deforested its natural habitat. Its comeback, starting in the 1950s, is also due to logging companies, who used fishers to control porcupines that eat tree seedlings.  Negative rumors about fishers abound, according to Hajduk, despite its role in helping to control rodents in the wild. "A lot of people think it's out there to attack everything," she said. "That they're vicious, voracious predators."  Merrill said he understands the fisher's nasty reputation. "They're pretty ferocious," he said. "They've gone into chicken coops and killed five or six of them. They kind of get into a frenzy. We had one that tore into a rabbit hut. It was sitting there, eating the rabbit. I wouldn't want to corner one and try to get it out."  Hajduk said keeping family pets safe from fishers requires only common sense. "We advocate people should keep pets supervised and, when not, keep them indoors," she said. "Don't let your pet roam free."  MassWildlife Central District manager William J. Davis offered additional advice: "Common sense dictates the proper course of action, including not putting trash out until the morning of pickup, not providing artificial food sources like bird feeders."  Keefe uses just such a feeder - a suet cage - to capture his close-up shots of fishers. On his website are dozens of stories about the fisher - some warnings and some defending the animal.  "Last December, we had one here running in the field," Keefe said from his home in Durham, N.H. "We had our dog out at night, and we yelled at [the fisher], but it would come closer instead of running away. It made an ungodly screeching noise. It made your hair stand up."  In Lexington, resident Beth J. Masterman, who lives on wooded Philbrook Terrace abutting conservation land, said she lost her Yorkshire terrier puppy, Ziggy, in March to a fisher that dragged him into the foliage.  She said better information could prevent similar tragedies.  "We need to know more, sooner," she said. "Maybe animal control officers ought to be used a month before the danger begins, not after."  Hajduk said information about fishers and how to minimize contact with the animal is always available.  "We have a lot of this information on our website, and it is easily accessible to the public," she said. "And we invite people to call us."

 

Leave it to Beavers   (back to top)

By Nan Shnitzler / Correspondent/ www.wickedlocal.com

Mon Oct 13, 2008, 10:48 AM EDT

 

Bolton, MA -

Beavers are skilled dam builders; their lives depend on it. They spend 80 percent of their time in their ponds, from which they access their lodges. But it is not unprecedented for an active beaver dam to fail. Even beavers cant anticipate a 25 or 50-year storm.  There are situations where beaver dams have let go apparently without human intervention and have caused significant damage, said Bill Davis, central district manager for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife.  Beavers are excellent engineers but not 100 percent foolproof. Town officials are convinced a failed beaver dam on private property caused a washout on Forbush Mill Road about a month ago and twice previously over the last few years.  Public Works Director Harold Brown and Conservation Administrator Carol Gumbart disagree with resident Patricia Huckery, who is MassWildlife northeast district manager, that sand and gravel removal from a nearby hillside somehow weakened the dams underpinnings, because the dam is upstream and behind the hill. So after spending nearly $10,000 to fix Forbush Mill Road and watching Hurricane Hanna dump five inches of rainfall on the estimated eight-acre, 8- to 10-year-old beaver pond in the Hansen conservation area, it was not a stretch for Brown and Gumbart to think there was an imminent downstream threat to Green Road. Gumbart ordered a small emergency breach at the side of the dam to relieve the water pressure.  Unfortunately, its against state law to tamper with a beaver dam in an emergency without a permit from the local Board of Health.  Emergency permits allow three options: breach the dam, install a flow device and/or trap the beavers. Gumbart admitted she should have gotten the permit first. But since the Conservation Commission has to authorize actions that affect the wetlands, she was half right. Paperwork to obtain an after-the-fact breach permit is now in process, Gumbart said. Technically, consent is also required from an abutting private landowner, the Bundys on Vaughn Hill Road. Jeanette Bundy was unaware of the dam drama, but said that she does'nt want the beavers messed with. Gumbart said the paperwork is in their hands. Board of Health Chairman Mark Sprague is aware of the dam breach and is not inclined to be punitive because he understands it was well intended. But next time, those responsible will get their hands slapped, he said. He is considering writing a reprimand for the record. You have to draw a line on what's a reasonable level of hazard, Sprague said. Normally, when an emergency permit comes in, we would hold a hearing on it. And everyone involved could chime in with opinions. There is a legal beaver-trapping season from Nov. 1 to April 15 when licensed trappers may use permissible box or cage-style live traps. Leg-hold and body-grabbing conibear traps were outlawed by Massachusetts voters in 1996 because they can cause slow, painful deaths. Since then, the 18,000 beaver census is estimated to have tripled, according to the MassWildlife Web site.  Its against state law to trap and relocate beavers and other wild animals. The Board of Health usually presides over out-of-season emergency permits when applicants want to trap and eliminate the animals because upstream flooding is encroaching on basements, drinking wells and septic systems on private property. That's what happened on Corn Road and Main Street, near the Historical Society, in 2005. A potential downstream threat is less common. In the last few weeks, the lack of regulatory process seems to have created a free-for-all at the Hansen dam. Locals who feared for the beavers when the breach lowered the water level patched up the gap.  How are we to know if the beavers are taking care of the dam if people are doing it for them? Gumbart said. Sprague said it appeared that well-meaning people were working at cross-purposes. Ironically, the Conservation Commission alone has the authority to install a water flow device in a beaver pond to maintain the integrity of a wetland or protect habitat in town-owned conservation land when there is no threat to public health or safety, according to Davis at MassWildlife.   To that end, Gumbart brought in Michael Callahan of Southampton-based Beaver Solutions Sept. 18 to assess the Hansen dam. In a Sept. 28 letter, he wrote that older dams and larger ponds, like Hansen, are more likely to fail catastrophically, but its rare. He saw that the beavers are actively maintaining the dam and there was no evidence that a catastrophic breach was imminent. His consultation cost $125. If the beavers stay, Callahan recommended reducing the pond impoundment one foot with a water flow device and/or replacing the nearby 12-inch Green Road culvert with a larger pipe to handle unexpected water events. He also recommended quarterly dam inspections. His solution would cost $1,620 including one year of maintenance. Brown said the engineering to accommodate a 24-inch pipe would mean raising Green Road drastically or building a cement box culvert. In ether case, there should be at least a foot of clearance between the road and culvert to prevent frost heaves, he said, potentially a $60,000 to $70,000 job. Gumbart said that water flow devices had been used successfully at the Bower Springs and Fyfeshire conservation areas. She will continue to monitor both the Forbush Mill and Hansen beaver dam situations while keeping stakeholders apprised.  Brown said he is keeping an eye on the Forbush Mill Road dam but leaving the Hansen dam to the Conservation Commission. He does not have a lot of confidence in mud and stick dams.

Green Road for me is off limits, Brown said. It will blow out; I know it will.

 

 

6-foot-tall beaver dams breaks, sends 'wave of mud downstream'   (back to top)

 Monday, September 15, 2008

 

COLRAIN, MA - A surge of possibly contaminated water rushed down the Green River, raising the water level by about 3 feet and causing road damage and closures after a beaver dam in Colrain broke Saturday morning, said Fire Chief David V. Celino.

 

The 6-foot-tall dam that broke held back 3 or 4 acres of heavily silted water, he said, which could have harmfully high bacteria levels. 'It was a solid wave of mud,' said Celino. Apart from light-to-moderate road damage to West Leyden Road, Cromack Lane and Fort Lucas Road, the major concern, he said 'is what kind of bacteria was in that water.'  The torrent nearly washed out a road culvert and eroded the shoulders of affected roadways.  The Department of Public Works was unavailable for comment on the safety of the Green River. The filter beds in the river, a water source for Greenfield, were shut down, firefighters said.  Paul Moyer III, who owns agricultural land on West Leyden Road in Colrain, said his fields were inundated with water, which rose to over three feet in places, before receding.

Firefighters stationed at Camp Kee-Wanee in Greenfield at the Wormtown Music Festival on Saturday noticed a darkening of the river's color, but no noticeable surge.   As of Saturday evening, there were closures on Fort Lucas Road, firefighters said.

 

 

Charlton, MA resident asks for help with beaver damage   (back to top)
By Debbie LaPlaca, Correspondent

Worchester Telegram & Gazette September 10, 2008


CHARLTON, MA - George Butz of 23 Gillespie Road went before selectmen last night for an answer to a problem that began for him about six years ago beavers. I have water in my backyard constantly. I have water in my basement. I spent over $8,000 out of my pocket to increase the height of my backyard. We are seeking the towns help with these creatures, he said.   When beavers first caused a problem on this property, Mr. Butz hired a trapper, which helped for a few years. But now they are back.

 

Selectman Kathleen W. Walker and highway foreman Gerry Foskett joined Wildlife Committee members yesterday to inspect the affected area. Beavers blocked a culvert behind McDonalds on Route 20 and built a dam about 100 yards upstream. Although the rising water affects Mr. Butz, the dam is located on someone else's private property.  The owner of that land was not established before the meeting.  The dams are not on my property; the water is.  "Its not a town problem but we don't know what else to do with it, Mr. Butz said. Karen Ogden of the Wildlife Committee recommended the installation of flow devices in the dam and culvert, noting the process has been successful in other problem areas. 

 

Who will assume the cost remains a question.  Mr. Foskett told the board the highway department cannot expend town funds to assist Mr. Butz unless there is a negative impact on the public roadway, which there is not. We are required by law not to spend town funds on private property unless there is imminent danger, Selectman Peter J. Boria said. Mr. Boria recommended the Wildlife Committee seek to establish a nonprofit organization to build and manage funds to help residents mitigate beaver issues in the future.  

 

For now, the board asked Ms. Ogden to obtain an estimate to install the flow devices.   The plan and associated costs for the dam will be presented to the landowner, when identified.  If the landowner does not agree to install a flow device, the issue will return to the board to consider intervention.

 

Coyotes kill five cats    (back to top)

By Staff reports

Wickedlocal.com News

Wed Aug 13, 2008, 12:26 PM EDT

Weymouth, MA - Carol Roberts tried to keep her five-year-old male tiger cat Rainbow indoors after hearing reports about coyotes snatching felines from her Whitmans Pond neighbors, but he managed to slip outside late Saturday night.

Roberts hoped for Rainbow to come home until a neighbor found his dismembered remains in a vacant lot on Lakeshore Drive.  We now have five confirmed cat deaths, Roberts said in her Intervale Road living room on Monday. There are two other neighborhood cats that are missing.   Lakeshore Drive resident Theresa Prevost suspects her black and brown colored cat Puzz-Puzz was captured by a coyote six weeks ago after it failed to come home.  My cat is the second cat to disappear, Prevost said.  Neighbors believe coyotes are responsible for the five cat deaths and disappearances of two felines near Whitmans during the past six weeks.  We've seen coyotes, said Leighann Zemp while she took a stroll with her pet chihuahua on Lakeshore Drive. Weve had heard people say they have seen coyotes walking down the middle of the street.  Prevost said a neighbor noticed a coyote outside Zemps home several nights ago and that it seemed unfazed by the residents presence.  When the coyote spotted the person, it did not even move. she said. State wildlife officials report coyotes tend to avoid humans but it will visit neighborhoods if it locates food sources such as unsecured garbage or unattended pets.  Experts advise residents to not leave any food or pets unattended in their yards.  Coyotes are usually active between dusk and dawn.  The animal generally has gray-black fur and resembles a medium-size dog.  Webb Street resident Michael Wallace said he saw a coyote cross the street in his neighborhood at 9:30 p.m. on July 31.  We have two missing cat signs posted on Webb Street, Wallace said while he listened to music in his car near Whitmans Pond on Monday. Im not sure if coyotes got the cats, but they are missing.  Prevost said a neighbor tried to prevent a coyote from snatching a cat by firing a BB rifle at the animal.  It had no effect, she said.  Lakeshore Drive resident Margaret Ehlel said she plans to keep her newly adopted kitten Cuddles, an orange and white tabby, indoors to keep it safe.  I just adopted her a week ago, Ehlel said.  She said neighbors have tried contacting David Curtin, a part-time animal control officer without success.   I know there have been budget cutbacks, Ehlel said. But this should take a priority. We need to do something about this it is not right.  Curtin said state law prohibits police from destroying nuisance coyotes unless the animal has attacked a human or is in the act of snatching a pet or has rabies.  If you have a problem with a skunk or raccoon, you can hire a trapper, he said on Tuesday. But you cant do that with a coyote which is a bigger headache.  Curtin said he receives complaints about coyotes regularly from residents.  I've received calls about coyotes from people who live up near Fairlawn Cemetery, he said. I think there might be a den of coyotes that live up near there. Coyotes have been seen all over the town.  Wildlife officials credit the animals scavenger appetite for its ability to thrive in urban towns.  A News reporter has seen coyotes on three occasions near the South Shore Plaza during the past few years.  The feral cat population is being reduced by coyotes, Curtin said.   State authorities don't consider coyote attacks on pets as legal reasons to destroy the animal because the creature is a protected furbearer species.  The state allows only one month out of the year to hunt coyotes, Curtin said.  He said pet owners should keep their cat or dog indoors two hours before dawn and dusk because coyotes tend to be more active at night while searching for prey.  People will get mad when I tell them to keep their cat indoors, he said. But they would not let their cat outside in a blizzard.  Prevost said she fears that the coyotes will become bolder and eventually attack a small child.  We have a lot of small kids in the neighborhood, Prevost said. We don't know if the coyotes felt threatened that they would attack a child.  Curtin said residents can discourage coyotes from visiting their neighborhood by keeping garbage secured and removing food scraps from barbecue grills.  Coyotes are attracted to peoples backyards when they don't clean their grill or leave food on the ground, he said.  Coyotes tend to be afraid of human contact, and wildlife officials say people can frighten the animal from their neighborhood by yelling or aiming water from a garden hose in its direction.  I've seen coyotes in my backyard, Curtin said. When I see one, I use an air horn to scare it away.

Coyotes Attack Expensive Animals in Westfield   (back to top)

By Matthew Campbell

Story Published: Jul 21, 2008 at 11:37 PM EST

Story Updated: Jul 21, 2008 at 11:37 PM EST

The Maple Brook Alpaca Farm on East Mountain road is the only one of it's kind in the Bay State. And it's home to a very expensive animal.

WESTFIELD, MA - "He's got one that's almost one million dollars," says Westfield's animal control officer, Ken Frazier.
The lovable llama looking creatures are under a severe threat. The abundance of coyotes are taking its toll on all parts of  Western Mass, but have recently honed in on one Westfield alpaca farm. "The only thing that was left on two of those animals was the fur. The other one, the only thing left was the ear," Frazier says. Frazier says the coyote population is so high because the eating is so good. "The rabbits have come back, the squirrel population have come back, so a lot of that has to do with the coyote population," he says. While coyotes often travel in packs and usually stay up near the woods, everyone, even city residents, need to be on guard. "I've seen them walking down the middle of Maple Street. If they're hungry, they'll take down a pet. It has happened, and it will happen again," Frazier promises.  Frazier can't really say exactly how many coyotes are in our area, but officials do know there are many, and that's why hunting  season on the animals has been extended.

 

 

Rabid raccoon goes down with fight   (back to top)

The Telegram & Gazette, (Worcester) July 31st, 2008

Byline: Susan Nest

 

SHREWSBURY, MA - While Leona Pease has had her hands full this past week dealing with loose dogs (see police log, page 2), a recent animal incident resulted in the first positive rabies report since she became Shrewsbury's animal control officer six years ago.  No domestic animal has ever tested positive for rabies in Shrewsbury, though raccoons, bats, skunks, though not many in recent years, and a red fox and a feral kitten, in the early 1990s - have all tested positive, according to Animal Inspector Bob Moore.  On June 20, a raccoon attacked a dog near Lake Quinsigamond.  The dog, which received a minor scratch from the raccoon, was up-to-date on its rabies shots, but was given a booster shot, according to Moore.  "With any inoculation, there's always the slightest chance of failure," Pease said. "It's always a good idea to get an animal checked after any altercation with a wild or domestic animal and get the vet's opinion if it should be re-inoculated."  After the incident with the dog, the raccoon swam across the cove and went after a toy poodle.  The owner was attempting to keep the raccoon away from the dog with a shovel when a neighbor told him the raccoon was not exhibiting normal behavior and might be rabid.  At that point, the man killed the raccoon with the shovel.  While there was no contact between the animals, "we treated it as if there was contact," Pease said. "The owner brought (the dog) to the vet and it was re-inoculated."  Both dogs were placed on a 45-day quarantine to make sure they are healthy. The in-house quarantine with minimal exposure to people will end on Aug. 4, said Moore, who added that it can take up to 45 days to ensure an animal doesn't have rabies.  The raccoon was also brought to a vet's office where its head was cut off and then sent to the State Laboratory Institute in Jamaica Plain for testing.  "The Health Department is responsible for getting (the specimen) to the state lab," said Board of Health Director Nancy Allen. "If it involves a human, or domestic animal or pet, we put all our efforts into getting that animal and getting it tested."  The criteria for having an animal suspected of having rabies, tested at the state lab, is if it has had contact with a human or domestic animal.  If there has been contact and the police kill the animal, they must be careful not to damage its head.  Rabies is a "fairly fragile virus that only appears in brain tissue," Allen said.  The animal would be sent either to the Northboro Animal Hospital, or Tufts, where the head would be packed in ice or dry ice and then sent by courier to the state lab.  If there has been no contact, the police would kill the animal and then advise that the animal be buried.  One of the signs an animal has rabies is it will fall down and appear to be sick, according to Allen, who said either she or Moore has to be notified when rabies are suspected.  Once the animal is tested, the report is sent to the Board of Health, which in turn shares the information with the animal control officer.  The raccoon tested positive for rabies, according to Pease.  "Since then, we have sent in two or three other animals," to be tested for rabies, but none were positive, Pease said.  In one of the incidents, a stray cat attacked an 84-year-old woman on Janet Circle approximately two weeks ago.  The woman chased the "steel-gray cat" out of her garage with a broom, but the cat returned and wrapped its paws around the woman, who then received 16 puncture wounds from cat bites.  Pease said she set a trap in the woman's yard to catch the animal.  "After trapping and releasing her cat four times, I finally caught the (gray) cat," she said. "I came in twice a day on the weekends on my own time to check the trap."  The cat, which was exhibiting unusual behavior, was euthanized at a vet's office and sent for testing at the state lab. It came back negative for rabies.  The woman eventually was sent to the hospital and received intravenous antibiotics.  "She did not have to go through the rabies series," Pease said.  The exposed person, if tests show that the animal had rabies, must be treated to prevent rabies, according to the Mass. Executive Office of Health and Human Services Web site. "Treatment consists of five shots of vaccine plus one shot of immune globulin over the course of a month."  Pease said two to six rabies specimens in Shrewsbury are sent for testing each year.  "Our biggest safety net is getting our domestic animals their rabies shots," she said. 

 

Rabies 101

The rabies virus can infect any mammal, but is more common among certain ones like bats, skunks, foxes and raccoons.  Cats, dogs and livestock also get rabies - and spread it to their owners - if they do not have special shots to protect them, but it is very rare among small rodents like squirrels, rats, mice and chipmunks.  The rabies virus is spread when an infected animal bites or scratches, but can also be spread if saliva from an infected animal touches broken skin, open wounds or the lining of the mouth, nose or eyes. In caves crowded with bats, it may be possible to inhale the virus floating on bat saliva in the air.  Rabid animals often behave strangely after the virus attacks their brains. They may attack people or other animals for no reason, or they may lose their fear of people and seem unnaturally friendly. Not all rabid animals act in these ways, so you should avoid all wild animals, especially bats, skunks, foxes and raccoons and not feed or touch stray cats or dogs.  If you have been bitten or scratched by a stray or wild animal, or by a pet or farm animal that has been behaving oddly, wash the wound with soap and water right away for at least 10 minutes; call your health care provider and the local Board of Health as soon as you finish washing; contact the animal control officer to catch or find the animal; and if your pet has been bitten or scratched by an animal you think may be rabid, put on gloves before touching your pet, follow the steps above, but call the pet's veterinarian instead of your own doctor.

For more information, call the Mass. Department of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Immunization at 1-888-658-2850, or visit www.mass.gov/dph.

 

 

Rabid fox bites 10-year-old girl   (back to top)
Boston Globe
July 16, 2008

PITTSFIELD, MA - Three residents of the Berkshires, including a 10-year-old girl, received medical treatment after an encounter with a rabid fox. The fox was smothered and killed shortly after Sunday's incident by the girl's father and a visiting friend. The fox's body was transported to the state Department of Public Health laboratory in Boston, where testing confirmed it had rabies. Jeff Moxon of Pittsfield tells the Berkshire Eagle that the fox bit his daughter, Deborah, on the right foot. The Moxons, as well as family friend Pasquale Arace, who was visiting the family, were all given rabies shots at Berkshire Medical Center.  Deborah says the fox bit her after she stuck out her leg to protect her 2-year-old sister.
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Information from: The Berkshire Eagle, http://www.berkshireeagle.com

Health board tackles beaver dam issues  

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By Christian Schiavone
Wicked Local News
http://www.wickedlocal.com
April 30, 2008 5:13 PM EDT

 

Acton, MA - Acton's human residents aren't the only ones who have been more active in the warm, dry weather the past few weeks has brought.  The Board of Health this week issued three emergency permits allowing the town to hire a local trapper to capture and kill beavers whose dams are creating a public health risk by threatening septic systems and flooding a driveway at three spots in town.  Once the beavers are gone, the town can breach the dams and prevent further flooding.  Unfortunately, the drier the spring, the busier the beavers get because they want to retain water, Doug Halley, the towns health agent, said during the boards April 28 meeting. The concern we have is that the flooding could potentially affect septic systems.  Halley said there are likely about 15 to 20 beavers causing the problems.  In 2000, the state Legislature gave local Boards of Health the power to grant such 10-day emergency permits to capture and dispose of beavers and muskrats that can cause dramatic impacts on their surroundings by damming rivers and streams.  Only licensed trappers are permitted to trap beavers.  Halley said the trapper will use restriction or conibear traps intended to capture the animals alive and above water. The beavers are then killed, usually by being shot and the trapper is permitted to keep the pelts.  State law prohibits capturing beavers and releasing them elsewhere.  Board member Joanne Bissetta said the beavers need to be removed because they can cause serious damage to septic systems causing both environmental damage and costing the property owner thousands of dollars.  If a septic system floods it doesn't function and it backs up into peoples homes and businesses and creates a public health risk, she said.

 

Shock, awe at coyotes in the city   (back to top)

Boston Globe story - Eric Moskowitz

April 20, 2008

 

Medford, MA - With its chain-link fences and tidy patches of lawn, Gibson Street in Medford isn't the first place Animal Planet is likely to set up its cameras. So, Joyce Pantone Rodrigues, understandably, was surprised when she looked out her kitchen window on a recent morning and saw a coyote staring back

.  "At first I thought it was a fox or a wolf. I didn't know what it was," said Rodrigues, who identified the furry, sleek-snouted creature with the help of her husband and quickly notified several neighbors, as well as the state. "I never in a million years expected to see a coyote in my backyard."  Most have had the same reaction to the coyotes spotted regularly of late in this section of the city, roughly a half-mile east of Interstate 93 and the Mystic River, although opinions about the presence of the animals vary widely. The children, and some of the adults, are enthralled; others are indifferent, while still others want the coyotes eradicated by almost any means necessary. At a recent meeting, city councilors expressed concern for public safety and demanded immediate coyote relocation or action. Councilor Robert M. Penta suggested the use of a "stun gun."  That's not going to happen, because coyotes are protected, local and state wildlife officials said. Relocating them is illegal and could endanger the animals and pose a threat to people. The alternative, euthanasia, is reserved for the rare cases when coyotes become aggressive......

 

Coyotes on the prowl in Medford   (back to top)
By Rob
Barry/rbarry@cnc.com - Wicked Local Medford
April 11, 2008

Medford, MA - Karen Dudley is scared to leave her shih tzu, Morgan, in her Myrtle Street back yard unsupervised. For nearly two months a pair of coyotes has been rummaging for food in the easement behind her yard and city officials say they don't have cause to remove the offending critters.  A group of coyotes are living in an area behind her yard, said City Councilor Fred Dello Russo at an April 8 council meeting. Through a system of burrows they've managed to get through the fences.  Dello Russo said rabies has been a problem in wild animals lately and he doesn't like to think of what could happen if a coyote were infected. Dudley's main concern, however, is her dog.  I have a small dog and if I cant let my dog out in my own back yard Dudley trailed off. I have to stand outside and watch and I cant leave and do an errand because they're allowing coyotes in the area.  Dudley said she would like to see the animals removed from her neighborhood. Karen Rose, Medford's director of public health, says its not so easy. The problem is, we cant remove coyotes, said Rose. We cant catch and release unless we can prove they're ill or they're dangerous.  There are a host of reasons why wildlife experts say wildlife should not be relocated. For starters, moving wildlife is against state law. According to Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife documentation, moving animals to another area hurts the ecosystem by throwing it out of balance. Moreover, it just takes problem animals and places them in someone else's backyard.  If you do remove them, all you do is open up that territory, said Rose. Then you have other coyotes coming in and possibly fighting for the territory. Rose says there are at least 10 known coyote dens in Medford, the residents of which are all tracked closely. There are even coyotes in the North End of Boston. In recent years there have not been any incidents of coyotes acting violently toward Medford residents or their canine companions, Rose said.  Until there is an incident, concerned citizens will probably just have to deal with the yipping and yowling of the scraggly, grayish animals. After dealing with Animal Control, the City Council and police, Dudley is not satisfied. She said she has been told if she claps loudly, the animals will disperse.  We've tried that and they don't move, said Dudley. They just look at us. The police offered to send a squad car over and blow the siren but, Dudley said, she found waving a flashlight worked best.  There is perhaps one positive note to the dilemma. We have not seen skunks or raccoons in two months, said Dudley. Is that their dinner? The two coyotes live by the Anheuser Busch building on Riverside Avenue in Medford, Rose said. They use the easement left by old train tracks to get through town. But until they become a threat there is nothing officials can do.  We have coyotes living among us, said Rose, and we just have to try to live with them.

 

Scotland Road resident warns pet owners after coyote attack  (back to top)
Charles Frost - The Daily News
April 03, 2008

Newbury, MA - Last week, Laura Hanlon's husband put their two dogs, Riley and Eddie, outside at 6:30 a.m., just like they had been doing for years at their property on Scotland Road.  Minutes later, Laura, her husband and her visiting brother found themselves running outside to ward off a coyote who had crept into their yard and begun to chase Eddie, their Australian cattle dog mix.  Hanlon, equipped with an air horn and her husband's golf club, called for Riley to come inside and he immediately ran back into the house. Hanlon continued into the woods searching for Eddie, who she said is more protective and who might have been chasing the coyote off the property.  After 20 minutes in the woods, Hanlon found Eddie, but didn't realize until later when she saw blood seeping through Eddie's fur that he had been attacked.
"When I retrieved him, I was very concerned," Hanlon said. "I know one coyote was seen by my husband and they blend in very well with the woods. I felt like it was probably still there. Had I known it had attacked my dog, I would have been even more fearful (that it might attack me)."  Eddie survived after being brought to the Amesbury Animal Hospital, where they shaved his hair off, revealing at least five wounds, including what Hanlon called "two pretty large" ones and "one very large" gash, which was larger than a half dollar.  Eddie was placed on anesthesia, and draining tubes were put into the wounds for several days before he was placed on antibiotics and painkillers. Newbury animal control officer Carol Larocque said coyotes are virtually never a threat to humans but thinks the attack on the dog may have been a territorial issue, citing the fact that coyotes may have their young now and would want to protect them.  "People don't realize how much wildlife is out there; there are an awful lot of coyotes," Larocque said.  "They are running out of environment, so now they have to live amongst us. I know that right down the street from me there is a pack of like 14 coyotes, and there's quite a few up by Scotland Road. They're just all over."
Larocque said a coyote looks like a cross between a fox and a wolf, and they have a variety of different colors. The coyote attack was not the first sighting that Hanlon and her husband have had on their property. Having lived there for the past 12 years, Hanlon said they have seen two coyotes, with one sighting occurring last March in the woods behind their house.  "It stood there and stared at our dogs," Hanlon said. "We were concerned." Following the sighting, Hanlon contacted the animal control officer, who told her that coyotes are prevalent in the area and they likely had dens in the woods around their house.  The officer also told them that this time of year is mating season, and coyotes can be more aggressive when protecting a pregnant coyote or a litter of pups.  Hanlon said she still didn't ever expect to see one in her yard. "I understand the area we are in is difficult," Hanlon said. "Not only is there a healthy population in our surrounding area, but they also like the area because it is rural. I'd be very concerned owning a cat.  I didn't know we had to be concerned with two big dogs. We know now."  Hanlon said her two dogs are both medium-sized, with Riley, a black Lab, weighing 80 pounds and Eddie weighing 60 pounds. She was alarmed that a coyote would attack animals that are the same size as it or larger.   "It seems to me that I read about (pets being attacked) more and more often in towns even far less rural than Newbury," Hanlon said. "They are even attacking dogs on leashes; it indicates coyotes are losing any significant fear of humans."  Larocque said it is out of the ordinary for a coyote to attack a dog because they normally go for smaller prey like rodents. However, if they have to feed a whole family of young, then they are constantly out looking for a food supply and could even take down a newborn calf, according to Larocque.  Hanlon said since the attack last Tuesday, her dogs haven't been allowed to roam freely like they were before and have only been allowed to go outside while being walked on a leash. She also said Riley, who was fearless before, now searches the woods beyond the perimeter of their backyard and cowers down in fear.  Larocque said this was the first coyote attack reported this year, but she would like to have people call her if they witness another one. "I like to know where attacks are taking place because if they are concentrated in a certain area, the Environmental Police can be made aware of the problem in the certain area," Larocque said. "Then we could kind of notify neighbors and let the people know there is a problem in the area."  Larocque suggested that owners never let their pets loose outside unsupervised to protect them from attacks from other animals. If need be, Larocque said coyotes can be scared off by making a lot of noise.  Since last Tuesday, Hanlon said she has had fencing contractors at her property with ideas for fencing the yard off due to "extremely high levels of anxiety for (the dogs') safety." "I am concerned much more about our dogs' safety than (I was) before last Tuesday," Hanlon said.  "The dogs are 7 and 8 and have never had a life-threatening incident. We enjoyed feeling safe about their existence. We no longer feel that way.  "We will take some action. We will do what we need to do to prevent this from happening again."

Trapped!   (back to top)
Towns losing the war against beavers
OUR CHANGING WORLD

By Aaron Nicodemus TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
Monday, March 31, 2008

WESTBORO, MA - With their penchant for damming up running water and chewing down tree after tree, American beavers can create headaches galore for property owners, water department managers and highway superintendents. They're also admired for their ingenuity, work ethic and engineering skills. Their thick winter pelts can fetch as much as $23. Beavers have caused so many problems in Westboro, in so many different places, that the towns Department of Public Works has requested $5,000 in next years budget just for beaver-related problems. They're everywhere. Its amazing the destruction they can cause in a short period of time, said Edward I. Wagner Jr., assistant manager of the Westboro Department of Public Works. The town recently paid to have five beavers trapped and killed because they were blocking up a culvert under Nourse Street that nearly flooded the basement of a house and could have flooded the street. Once completely wiped out in Massachusetts, beavers have made an amazing come back, aided by a 1996 statewide ballot question that banned many kinds of traps. The law was modified in 2000 to allow for a trapping season and emergency trapping permits, but by then the population had tripled, from 20,000 statewide to more than 70,000. There are no current accurate counts of beavers, state wildlife officials say, because there are no uniform reporting requirements for counting trapped beavers. The trapper hired by Westboro used a conibear trap, which catches the entire animals body. Trappers say it immediately kills the animal by dislocating its spine. Animal rights advocates say many animals survive until the trapper returns. Trap and release is not an option. It is illegal in Massachusetts to catch a wild animal in one location and release it somewhere else, according to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife. It is also illegal to break down a beaver dam without a permit. Mr. Wagner estimated that his department spends six to eight hours a week on beaver problems, mostly clearing away beaver dams from culverts and checking known beaver areas for new problems. Beavers regularly block culverts near the Westboro Tennis & Swim Club on Lake Chauncy, and on Whittemore Pond off Flanders Road. In Suasco Reservoir on Arch Street, Mr. Wagner said the town has paid for about 20 beavers to be removed in the past three or four years.  As soon as we trap them, others move right in, he said.  The town pays to remove beavers because they build dam after dam in front of the culvert there, which has flooded out the section of Arch Street by the railroad bridge. Every time, the beavers adapt after a dam is removed.  The beavers are smart. I have a lot of respect for them, he said. If you remove the dam, the next time, they start to dam up inside the pipe first, so we cant get to it.  Paul McNulty, Westboro's director of public health, said the town issues only one or two emergency trapping permits a year, although the department is aware of residents hiring trappers during the trapping season, which lasts from Nov. 1 to April 15.  The beaver population has just exploded, he said. Communities throughout Massachusetts have battled with beavers, whose dams flood out roads, basements, wells and septic systems. They can also chew down a wooded lot in a short time, leaving areas open to erosion. But simply trapping and killing the animals is a short-term solution, since beavers tend to reappear in areas where there is running water and plenty of food. Beavers are beavers, they're wildlife, and we've got to balance the human and the wild, said Ginny Scarlet, wetlands and soil specialist for the town of Spencer. She said that while plenty of private landowners in town have called trappers to remove beavers causing problems, the town has tried to co-exist with them. In three different spots in Spencer along the Cranberry River, on private property off McCormick Road and on land at Buck Hill Pond beaver pipes have been installed to allow water to flow through beaver dams. It becomes a maintenance issue at that point, she said. You've still got to clear it out regularly; the beavers will try to clog it up. In 2006, an emergency beaver trapping permit issued by the West Boylston Board of Health sparked an outcry from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. But Board of Health chairman Robert J. Barrell Jr. said the board has issued only two such permits in the nine years he has been a member. We've got to learn to live with beavers, he said. Removing them is'nt a long-term solution. It's only a matter of time before a family re-habitats the area. In several locations in town, private landowners have installed water diverters, usually pipes which help mask the sound of running water, which attracts beavers. The town of Templeton has had success keeping beavers away from culverts with six beaver deterrent fences. The beavers still try to plug them, but with a few modifications, we've kept them clear, said Templeton Highway Superintendent Francis Chase. But the beavers don't give up. All they do is go upstream, and they flood other peoples properties. He said each fence cost about $1,500 to install, and requires regular maintenance. Mr. Chase said the beaver population is out of control. People in the cities, they think they're beautiful when they drive down the country roads and see them working away, he said. But they're causing a lot of trouble for somebody.

After Homo sapiens, no mammal in North America can alter a landscape faster than the Castor canadensis.

 

Beaver problems continue to plague Miles River

  

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Salem News

By Steve Landwehr - Staff writer

February 20, 2008 02:05 pm   

Ipswich, MA - It's a little hard to tell if Wenham's culverts on the Miles River are performing up to expectations after being replaced last year. Due to heavy rains and melting snow the past two weeks, there's an unusually high amount of water in the river, but don't blame the culverts.  "There's not a lot of flow out there because of all the beaver dams downstream," Tyack said. No Wenham residents have complained of flooding so far, he said.  The news is not so good in Hamilton, however, where water levels threaten to submerge some septic systems.  State Rep. Brad Hill is pointing his finger directly at officials in his own hometown, Ipswich. Wenham, Hamilton and Beverly, the other three communities through which the river runs, have all done trapping and dam breaching to alleviate beaver problems, and even the MBTA has helped out by clearing one of the culverts under its tracks.  "The town of Ipswich hasn't done anything," Hill said.  Flooding during the Mother's Day storm in 1986 destroyed three culverts in Wenham. The cost to replace them was $1.8 million. Homes in Beverly, Wenham and Hamilton were also flooded.  Ipswich is part of the Miles River Task Force that formed to tackle perennial problems with the river. Besides the beaver population, the river is heavily infested with purple loosestrife, an invasive plant that is choking the river and inhibiting its ability to act as sponge during rain storms.  Hill said he hopes to be on the Ipswich selectmen's agenda soon so coalition members can plead their case for more action.  "It's puzzling to me why one town is unwilling to do anything when the other three have spent money, and a good deal of money, so the water can get through," Hill said. "It's useless if the water has no place to go.  "Ipswich Conservation Commission Chairman David Standley has publicly expressed skepticism about beaver trapping. The commission would have to grant permission for any dams to be breached.  Standley says he doesn't doubt trapping and breaching would be successful in the short run, but beavers are bound to return. The rodents are here because this has become good beaver habitat, he said.  Hill said the river coalition is waiting for Sen. Ted Kennedy or Congressman John Tierney to place an "earmark" in the federal budget that would provide money for the Army Corps of Engineers to look into dredging the river, but there's no guarantee that will come to pass.  In the meantime, Hill hopes he can just get some quick decisions on beaver dams.  "I'm very disappointed in the actions of Ipswich," he said.

 

Earthen dam poses risk to development   (back to top)

 

By Michael Morton/Daily News staff

Mon Jan 21, 2008, 12:05 AM EST

 

FRANKLIN, MA - A dam at the DelCarte conservation area is at risk of collapsing, according to a report released last week, a development that could threaten downstream homes.  Town engineering consultants did not give a time frame for the possible failure during a presentation at the Conservation Commission Thursday, but they did categorize the dam as a "significant" hazard, not a "high" one.  "We felt there would definitely be significant impact to the surrounding area," said engineer Matthew Bellisle, the president of Pare Corp.  While only one of the seven earthen dams - No. 3, in the middle of the 130-acre property - poses a threat, the others could collapse, too, Bellisle said.  Over the years, trees have sprouted on the structures, tearing the dams apart with their roots, he said, and water flow has changed paths because of beaver activity and is now eroding the man-made structures.  "The beavers are causing a tremendous amount of damage to the area," said Bellisle. The current dam configuration holds back the Mill River and was made by longtime landowner Ernest DelCarte, who took an old cranberry growing operation and turned it into a fishing and boating spot. After his death, his daughter donated the $3 million property to the town, according to his wishes.  While Bellisle cautioned that his team has more work to do, he suggested repairing three of the dams, including the problematic No. 3.  The rest might be removable, he said. "It might be more cost-effective to remove those structures," he said, referring to the need to maintain any dams that are left.
Several Conservation Commission members noted that removing dams could make the remaining ponds bigger, increasing recreational opportunities.  While the engineering team still needs to assess the impact of different options and make a final recommendation, Conservation Commission Chairman Raymond Willis said after the meeting that the removal of four dams could range anywhere from several hundred thousand dollars to a couple of million.  The current study costs $25,000 and is being funded by fees and fines collected by the commission. Any further spending would have to come from other sources, Willis has said.  During Thursday's meeting, Bellisle pointed out that there are more than 3,000 dams in Massachusetts, with Franklin's structures unlikely to qualify for the limited state repair grants available.  Commission member Paul Boncek agreed. "This isn't a very threatening situation," he said.  Michael Morton can be reached at mmorton@cnc.com or 508-634-7582.

 

City howling over coyotes   (back to top)

Two dozen in six weeks; some venture downtown

By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF - Jan. 16, 2008

WORCESTER, MA - City health officials have issued a “coyote alert” in response to roughly two dozen sightings of the animals here during the last six weeks, including some near the heart of downtown. “We’ve had sightings from every part of the city, not just on the outskirts. They’re coming down into the core of the city,” said Derek S. Brindisi, the city’s director of public health.

 

Red tape may seal beavers' fate   (back to top)

By Joyce Kelly/MetroDaily West News staff
Posted Nov 09, 2007 @ 01:13 AM

 

HOLLISTON, MA - Chances of evading a death trap look slim for the Bogastow Brook beavers.
Water commissioners Wednesday night agreed to try saving the beavers, which the state deemed a public health threat in
September, by seeking help from the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the Animal Rescue League. The state Department of Environmental Protection is advising the town to immediately remove the beavers, which commonly carry two life-threatening parasites, giardia lamblia and cryptosporidium, and their dam. The animals' proximity to a public  drinking water source, Well No. 5, off Central Street, poses an immediate threat to the water supply and public health.  But using lethal traps appears to be the only way to remove the beavers, said Water Department Superintendent Ron Sharpin, since transporting them is illegal. To legally move a wild animal such as a beaver, a permit must be obtained from the state Division of Wildlife & Fisheries, which has a policy to not issue permits to transport beavers, said division spokeswoman Lisa Capone. Yesterday, the Daily News contacted Mass Audubon and the Animal Rescue League of Boston to see whether either group would consider taking the Bogastow Brook beavers and save their lives. "No, we can't take them. You can't move them. No, you definitely can't do that," said Stacy Miller at Mass Audubon in Natick. "That would not work out - we have enough beavers of our own," she said, laughing. The Animal Rescue League also indicated it cannot help the beavers. "If there's healthy wildlife, the state prevents organizations such as ours from picking up a wild animal and moving it to another location," said Christopher Smalley, the league's director of media relations. He suggested the town contact the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which does have a program to manage wildlife.  Even if an organization such as Mass Audubon agreed to "adopt" the beavers and give them a new home, the Division of Wildlife & Fisheries will not allow them to be transported, Capone said. Beavers are creating problems "all over" the state, so Wildlife & Fisheries officials view their relocation as simply moving the problem from one place to another, she said. "The Division of Fisheries & Wildlife does not allow relocation of beavers for any reason," Capone said yesterday. Sharpin, who has been in emergency preparedness classes with other town officials all week, said he has not yet contacted the Animal Rescue League or Mass Audubon. Since the state passed the law prohibiting the use of lethal traps without a permit from the local board of health, beavers have caused problems all over the state, Sharpin said.  During wetter weather, the overflow of Bogastow Brook created by the beaver dam backed up into neighbors' septic systems. Even after August's record low rainfall, when the pond was down to the lowest level it can go, Sharpin said, it didn't recede from the well. "It's really ridiculous what the law's resulted in. It seemed to be innocent at first ... but it's evolved into a real environmental impact and human impact. "It's a problem we don't know any other solution for, and I guess the state doesn't either," Sharpin said.

(Joyce Kelly can be reached at 508-626-4423 or jkelly@cnc.com.)

 

Fox attach in Chelmsford   (back to top)

Chelmsford, MA -  A woman is getting tested for rabies after she was attacked by a fox.

Police say the aggressive fox bit her and cut her right leg. It even tried to get into her condo.

Animal rescue is testing the fox for rabies and is waiting for results.

Officers say they had to destroy the fox.

 

Coyotes attacks 11-pound dog   (back to top)

By Jeff Gilbride, Daily News staff

Posted Sep 13, 2007

 

Waltham, MA - Coyotes attacked and mauled an 11-pound dog in Waltham early yesterday morning.  Penny, the injured animal, was taken to the Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center of New England, a 24-hour animal hospital on Bear Hill Road, where she was euthanized.  This is first recorded coyote attack in Waltham, according to police.  Lt. Joseph Brooks said yesterday around dawn, a resident of Lincoln Street let Penny, a mixed-breed, out the front door to run around the neighborhood near Smith Street, where she was attacked.  "He heard all this yelping," Brooks said.  "He went outside with a flashlight. His dog came back but it was all chewed up. They brought it to the vet."  Neighbors are warned to keep tabs on their pets.  "These things kind of create mass hysteria," he said. "Just make sure you keep your dogs on a leash or in a fenced-in yard. Coyotes are most active at dawn and dusk."  Brooks also recommended keeping cats inside.  "There have been reports, not here, but of coyotes who have been known to attack cats," he said.  According to Brooks, Penny, who had been with the family since she was a puppy, lived in a semi-wooded residential area in the 600 block of Lincoln Street, bordering Rte. 128 and Smith Street.  Amy Shroff, a veterinarian at the hospital, said the facility has treated about six pets for injuries received in coyote attacks.  "I've had coyote attacks in my neighborhood. I live in Wayland," she said. "Coyotes tend to be fairly quiet animals that are only looking for food for their young."  Shroff encouraged residents not to take violent action against coyotes.  "It's a situation no one should have to go through. It's really traumatic," she said. "I think the real issue is we're encroaching on their territory. The coyotes, like other animals, are only trying to survive and they need to eat. Unfortunately, smaller dogs and smaller cats, if they are out and not supervised, these things can happen."  Shroff also offered ways for Waltham residents to protect their pets.  "Cats should really be indoor animals. They should be in, in the early morning hours. Small dogs ... it's not just coyotes we worry about, there's other dogs that run in packs," she said. "The typical attack scenario is small or older dogs and cats that are out unattended."  Shroff said pet owners can reduce the chance for attacks by watching over their animals outside at dusk and dawn.  "The coyotes aren't going anywhere," she said. "I think we just need to have more common sense and understand these animals are only feeding. They are not necessarily violent animals."    Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jgilbrid@cnc.com. 

 

Beavers, not humans, ruin Puffer's Pond    (back to top)

The Amherst Bulletin -  August 17, 2007

 

To the Bulletin:

I found it interesting that the article concerning erosion and giardia contamination at Puffer's Pond avoided mentioning the resident beavers and instead focused attention on the human activity around and in the pond. Having visited the local swimming hole and conservation area for 20 years, I have sadly noticed much devastation, specifically around the pond itself, in the past five to eight years. Sad because not only is Puffer's Pond a wonderful, icy cold swimming spot that makes this area so special, but also because of the loss of important climax forest trees which have taken many years to grow to their mature sizes. What I have noticed in the past years is the construction of a beaver dam, and then subsequent destruction of many trees around the pond, including old beautiful beech and hemlock trees. I believe this has led to the erosion problems more than the human activity around and in the pond, which only occurs a few months out of the year. The beavers are at work for a much longer period. And one has to consider that the ultimate destiny of a beaver-inhabited area is meadow. The beavers will use up all the food available and then leave. It is easy to see the changes at Puffer's that have resulted from the beaver activity. A marsh is growing, and giardia counts are most likely rising. I am a naturalist and love nature, but I am not the type that doesn't believe in deer hunting or getting rid of beavers when they cause serious problems for humans or even the natural environment. Consider that Puffer's Pond is a much-loved man-made swimming hole, and many children enjoy this spot during the summer months. Giardia is a nasty parasite that causes chronic diarrhea, intestinal discomfort, fatigue and weight loss. It requires medication. Children are more likely to ingest the cysts from beaver feces by ingesting the pond water. Giardia cysts can last out of water on toys (perhaps rafts) for a long time. Also, the organism can be harbored by dogs. A beaver is a giant rodent, the largest North American rodent in fact. They feed on tree bark and cambium (the living layer of the tree, underneath the bark), living for up to 20 years. If one were to look up "beaver damage" online, one would find that not only is it a common problem, but one of the main aspects of the damage that beavers cause is erosion. Erosion was the main problem at Puffer's Pond cited in the article by Mary Carey. There seems to be a problem with beaver control in this area. Puffer's Pond is just another victim of the lack of policy for dealing with beaver damage. One has to wonder: Do I prefer a beautiful swimming hole, with lovely trees, or do I prefer beavers taking over, infesting the water with a parasite and turning the swimming hole into a meadow? Personally, I prefer beech trees to beavers. Especially in a conservation area, for the beavers will and have ruined the conservation of other important wildlife species. - Patricia Duffy, Leverett MA

 

Coyote attack: Wild canines kill small dog Keep close watch on pets if coyotes are nearby, experts say

   (back to top)
The Patriot Ledger Quincy, MA - Karen Goulart
September 8, 2007

 

Hingham MA - It was a typical morning that would wind up tragic for a Hingham dog owner. Ken Cardillo and his family hope sharing what happened that day might spare other pet owners - or parents - from a similar experience.  Like countless other mornings, Matilda, an 8-year-old Boston terrier, woke Cardillo, wanting to be let outside. It was part of their daily routine; Matilda would do her business while Cardillo shaved for work.  The little dog never wandered far from the Beal Street house and would wait for Cardillo to return and let her inside, he said. But one morning last week, just a few minutes after she went outside, Cardillo said he heard a loud whimper.  He quickly dressed, grabbed a flashlight and ran outside, searching in brush and briars. His son joined him, they called police, but Matilda was nowhere to be found. Later, he said, a neighbor told him three coyotes had been behind Cardillo's house. "They must've come down and grabbed her," Cardillo said. Cardillo said he had never seen coyotes on his property. But he has seen them on his street.  In the full light of day, one of Cardillo's daughters, Alison, went into the woods and found Matilda's body. Cardillo said he didn't want to know the details, but heard enough.  "She was kinda ripped apart," he said. "I didn't ask my daughter for more." These days coyote sightings are not uncommon in suburbs like Hingham or even in cities. During the spring and summer, police and animal control receive several calls about the canines, but under state law, there is little that can be done about them.  Usually coyotes, while not shy, will not bother with larger pets or people. But, state wildlife experts and veterinarians who deal with attacked pets say it is never a good idea to leave small dogs or cats unattended when coyotes are known to be nearby.
Coyotes have adapted to the suburbs because food and shelter is easy to come by. But a hungry coyote may see a small dog as prey and a big dog as competition. Hingham Animal Control Officer Al Currie said fatal attacks like the one on Matilda are rare. He believes the last one happened about 5 or 6 years ago. He said for the most part coyotes "do what they're supposed to do," but the more they lose remote places to live and hunt, the more careful people need to be.  "It's not just small dogs, if you've got an old dog, a sick dog, it's not so much the size," Currie said. "If you've got a coyote around, don't leave the dog unsupervised and definitely don't let it run by itself."  Cardillo's daughter, Karin, who grew up on Beal Street and now lives in Maine, said she is concerned for residents in the area with pets as well as small children. There are a lot more young families in the area than there used to be, she said.  "People probably know the coyotes are out there," she said. "But they may not know just how close the animals really are."  Karen Goulart may be reached at kgoulart@ledger.com.

 

Town grapples with big hazard: beavers

  

(back to top)

Telegram & Gazette July 19, 2007 - Shirley Barnes

 

Templeton MA - The worst natural hazard facing local officials is one they share with many other rural communities - the beaver.  The Montachusett Regional Planning Commission met with local officials yesterday to help the town create a plan to mitigate the effects a natural disaster might have on a community.  Earthquakes, sinkholes, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, blizzards, lightning strikes, torrential rains, snow and ice, floods and drought - nothing compares to the concern officials have about the effects of beavers.  The meeting was a little more than two hours long and one hour was spent almost exclusively on beaver dams and the problems they have created on roads, for homeowners, and the light and water department and sewer departments. Beaver abound in the town, which is full of streams, brooks, ponds, bridges with culverts and a plentiful supply of trees.  Jason Stanton, an analyst for the planning commission, told town officials the time they spend on beaver problems is not unusual. "Typically, these meetings are about two hours long and in rural  communities, the first hour is usually spent on beaver problems," Mr. Stanton said.  Town officials said beaver activity near Route 202 in the King Philip Trail area could create a disaster if the dams were allowed to back water up into the closed, but unlined, former landfill. Other problems could be created if sewer lines were crushed or pump stations flooded. One pump station was flooded several years ago, when water from the Birchhill flood protection area backed up to surround the station. This was not related to anything beavers had done, officials said.  Beaver activity is a problem from the southern end of Templeton at Stone Bridge Road to the northern section near Baldwinville Center and Royalston Road. There have also been problems in East Templeton, at the Plant Road sewer pump station, where a broken line could send sewage into the swamps and wetlands in that area.  Beaver baffles have been placed in some problem culverts in town, and employees of various town departments spend several hours each week cleaning culverts and removing dams.  Beaver activity can also create erosion problems, which means more highway hours spent on repairs, according to Highway Superintendent Francis "Bud" Chase. A flood in Depot Pond, near Bridge Street, could wash out a lot of Baldwinville Center, Mr. Chase said.
The town also needs to inspect dams, which could create major flood hazards if breached. Robert Biagi, project consultant for MRPC, reminded town officials that global warming floods could increase over the next 10 years. If there is not enough snow and slow snow melt to release into the earth, the area could face dry vegetation and other drought-related problems.
The town should also prepare residents for disasters by providing a list of food and supplies that might be needed. "The town might not face a major disaster, but even a short time without access to staples can create problems," Mr. Biagi warned.  The town has faced hurricanes and minor tornadoes, but must prepare for any big wind event that might occur. Fire Chief Thomas Smith pinpointed several areas in which fires could spread and create a disaster, including in downtown Baldwinville. There, old houses are clustered close to churches and potential fire hazards. Furthermore, at the new DayMill Town House complex, fire apparatus access is limited.  The town is already working on storm water runoff and drainage correction plans. The regional planning commission is working with area towns to develop a Natural Hazard Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan to help reduce or eliminate loss of life or property from natural disasters. In the future, all communities must have a Hazard Mitigation Plan in place to qualify for federal Disaster Mitigation grants.

 

Family dog kills rabid fox in his yard

   (back to top)

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff
Posted Jul 03, 2007 @ 11:17 PM


HOLLISTON, MA - On a recent Saturday morning, the Ahearn family was eating breakfast on the patio of their 68 Cheryl St. home when their German shepherd, Sam, started barking at a noise in the woods.  Suddenly, a snarling fox charged into their backyard toward Sam. "My wife had the kids run inside. My wife, at first tried to get the dog inside, but couldn't get between the dog and the fox - there was nothing she could do," William Ahearn said.  Sam reared up, "took him on, and took him to the ground," said Ahearn. The dog stood back, and the fox got up and attacked him a second time - and that's when Sam killed it, Ahearn said.  Initially, the family thought the black and tan fox, which Ahearn estimated was about half the size of Sam, who weighs 75 pounds, was a coyote. Ahearn grew up around alligators, and said he is not too shaken by the June 16 incident, which the Board of Health reported at its meeting Monday.  The family has seen many foxes in the area, and as many as seven coyotes, he said. "It certainly wasn't the smallest fox I've ever seen," Ahearn said. Holliston Animal Hospital later determined the animal was a red fox and tested positive for rabies, according to Animal Inspector Donald Kramer.  The fox bit Sam in the head, which left a mark but did not puncture the skin, he said. Since Sam had his rabies vaccination, the family was told to just quarantine him at home for 45 days, Board of Health Agent/Director Ann McCobb said.  Animals must be decapitated to test for rabies, which requires taking a brain tissue sample, McCobb said. Only a few cats and dogs - typically 1 percent or less - test positive for the virus, according to Michael Cahill, rabies program coordinator for the state Department of Agricultural Resources.  For that reason, Cahill strongly recommends owners quarantine their pets for 10 days rather than needlessly kill and test them, which also costs the state time and money. Last year, 400 dogs were killed to be tested for rabies, and not a single one was positive, according to the state Department of Public Health Web site.  "They are tested way more than they should be ... and they shouldn't be put down," he said. Rabies is most prevalent in raccoons, foxes, skunks and bats, Cahill said. Animals are not infectious during the incubation period, but pose a threat once the virus becomes active: when it reaches and swells the brain, much like encephalitis, and, three days later, saliva, he said.  The longest dogs and cats live when they're actively infected is eight days, but typically four or five, he said. The state averages one positively tested rabid animal a day, and the distribution of rabid animals is widespread, he said. Southern Worcester County is busy now, and in June, animals tested positive for rabies in the towns of Holliston (red fox), Framingham (raccoon), Wellesley (raccoon), Brookline (bat), and Sudbury (woodchuck), Cahill said.  Massachusetts was free of rabies until the early 1990s, when southern animals spread a virulent form of the virus up the East Coast, primarily through raccoons, according to Wayne F. MacCallum, director of MassWildlife.  Now rabies, which can infect any mammal, is endemic to Massachusetts and kills most of the raccoons and foxes here, he said. The population then rebuilds itself, and the virus takes aim again - about a four-year cycle, MacCallum said.  "There's no way to eliminate the virus unless you eliminated all the animals," MacCallum said. Signs to watch for: Erratic behavior: animals do not show wariness or fear of people, and some instances, attack people. Normally, MacCallum said, foxes are "quite leery" and keep their distance. When they are infected with rabies - they can exhibit a "passive friendliness" that can attract children. Foaming at the mouth occurs in only about 15 percent of rapid animals, MacCallum said.  If an animal starts acting strangely, call animal control, he advised. "The best way to protect your family and your pets from rabies is to make sure your cats and dogs are current with vaccinations, which are safe and effective," Cahill said.
William Ahearn said he is pleased at how Sam reacted. "Having the dog out there was kind of an assurance (of protection). He certainly did his job - not that we got him to be an attack dog, but it's something German shepherds are good at," he said. "Certain instincts are bred in shepherds to protect, and he certainly was protecting his people."  (Joyce Kelly can be reached at 508-626-4423 or jkelly@cnc.com.)

 

Beavers too eager for them   (back to top)

Many in suburbs fretting as beavers build wildly

By Javier C. Hernandez, Globe Correspondent | June 28, 2007

 

ANDOVER, MA - In the midst of the Great Depression, beavers were so scarce in Massachusetts after years of unrestricted hunting that the state was forced to acquire three from New York to revive their presence. Now the number of buck-toothed, tree-chomping rodents is exploding across the state, with beavers causing flooded backyards and munching their way through local forests.  Wildlife specialists said the state's beaver population has tripled in the last decade to an estimated 70,000 to 80,000. The boom coincides with a record number of complaints about Castor canadensis.  As residential sprawl yet again pits human against animal, the large rodents have sparked territorial battles in cranberry bogs in the southeastern part of the state, near wetlands in Western Massachusetts, and in neighborhoods across the Merrimack Valley and the North Shore. While there have been scattered reports of beaver problems around the state over the past several years, Alan French, who heads the Andover-based Bay Circuit Alliance, a coalition of state and local landowners -- said the dams showing up in the Andover area this year are the biggest he has ever seen .  Several months ago, flooding from beaver dams closed an 18-mile stretch of the 200-mile Bay Circuit Trail, which rings Boston. French, 75, is working with local landowners to bypass the flooded areas of the trail, but he said the beaver issue has divided residents of Andover, impeding efforts to solve the problem. "If you had 10 neighbors, the other nine would be for nuking them," French said yesterday during a tour of Andover dams. "The polarization is just gigantic." On the tour, French walked past a bench built in memory of his late wife. Because of the handiwork of beavers, it now sits in mud, overlooking a drowning boardwalk near the Skug River. The growth of human and beaver populations, coupled with stronger restrictions on trapping, has led to tensions, especially in Northeastern Massachusetts suburbs, according to Stephen DeStefano, a US Geological Survey researcher at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who studies beavers for the state."In general, what we're seeing is there are more beavers trying to occupy more places," he said. While beavers have a reputation for troublemaking, conservationists point to the positive effect they can have on habitats. Indeed, on Andover's Salem Street, right across from a dam on the Skug River Reservation, Susan Reichter and her family have come to love the beavers' presence. They snap photos of the rare wood ducks, great blue herons, and mallards that dip in and out of the new pond in her backyard created by flooding from a nearby dam. While French pointed to nearby pines and explained beavers' techniques, Reichter bolted out of her house to question him. She said she watches over the dam to prevent other local residents from trying to tear it down."The fact that the beaver has done what he's done is great," said Reichter, a bookkeeper.  

In 1996, Massachusetts voters passed a referendum that restricted the use of traps. To trap a beaver outside the sanctioned season, which runs from Nov. 1 to April 15, residents must obtain a special permit by convincing their local health board that the beaver's presence poses a safety risk. John Benedetto, 58, has served as a trapper in the Wakefield area for 40 years. He said he has noticed a dramatic increase recently in the number of residents who have called him for help. "Everybody likes the beaver until he moves into the backyard," he said with a chuckle. "Some of the messes people get into are unbelievable. People are suffering." Towns and cities use several different methods to deter beavers, ranging from simple trapping to "beaver deceivers," pipes that are installed beneath dams to stealthily drain ponds, so beavers won't be spurred by the sound of trickling water to instinctively repair their dams. Some residents take more drastic measures. In late spring, DeStefano said, when flooding is common but trapping is illegal without a special permit, more residents appear to be killing the animals outright.  "We're always concerned about the humane treatment of animals," he said. "It feels a little out of control."  Underneath the white pines surrounding the reservation named for his wife, French paused to point out where cattails used to grow. Only water and mud occupy the spot now. French said he hopes residents in Andover will begin to compromise to solve the beaver impasse. "I just want people to be able to walk the trail again," he said. "But you can see the emotions on each side," French said. "I don't think we are going to solve it in a hurry."

Hernandez can be reached at jhernandez@globe.com

 

Beaver dams causing problems   (back to top)

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News Staff

June 13, 2007 @ 1:02 am

The MetroWest Daily News

 

Perhaps they don't like the sound of water, or the movement of rushing water...

 

Marlborough, MA - Whatever the reason, beavers have just one overwhelming drive: to stop flowing water, according to Robert Landry, Marlborough Board of Health administrator.  "That's what they live for: stopping the water," Landry said with a laugh.  That devotion to dam-building has led to a lot of headaches.  The dams redirect water from rivers and streams into MetroWest backyards. In some cases, the beavers' industry has dried up small ponds and at least one private well, area board of health officials say.  In towns like Holliston, Framingham, Natick, Hopkinton and Marlborough, an "explosion" of beavers is causing what animal-rights activists refer to as "human-beaver conflict," Landry said.  Since the Legislature passed a law in 1996 banning body-grip death traps commonly used to kill beavers, the beaver population has at least tripled, according to Wayne F. McCallum, director of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife.  "It's an issue particularly in the suburban areas, where you've got flooding of people's yards," McCallum said.  Responding to the damaged yards and wetlands, the Legislature in 2000 amended the law to allow local boards of health to take emergency measures, said Tom O'Shea, chief of wildlife for the state Division of Fisheries & Wildlife. A permit is granted to property owners who are allowed to use lethal traps in specific instances.  If beavers' water-plugging work compromises public health or safety, boards may grant permission to install devices to keep water flowing, catch beavers with lethal traps and breach dams with conservation commission approval, O'Shea said.  "A lot of local boards of health had to do this ... Framingham's had consistent beaver issues in some areas," O'Shea said.  As beaver populations grow and occupy more habitat, those water-flow devices (piping systems) will not remain functional over the areas beavers can occupy, McCallum said.  "As the population grows, it's doing nothing but moving into areas where it causes problems - in places like Ipswich, Hopkinton and Holliston. There's no question in my mind, more rural areas don't have the problems MetroWest areas do," McCallum said.  Worried about flooding near Central and Fiske streets in Holliston, the town's Board of Health, in conjunction with the Conservation Commission, is aiming to begin "beaver mitigation" by the end of this week, according to Board of Health Chairman Richard Maccagnano.  Beavers built a "substantial" dam and backed up the water for acres, threatening people's backyards, Maccagnano said.  "A lot of backyards were flooded, along with a town well in that area. ... The beaver population has been growing quite a bit, and it's grown to a point where it's hard to control the dams," he said. "There are so many beavers, you just can't keep up with them - they work really fast."  Beavers simply can't help themselves, Landry said. Studies show that even when beavers are put in a bathtub, they instinctively try to plug up the water.  Beaver Solutions of South Hampton was hired to create a plan for beaver controls in dams to regulate water levels, he said.  The first step is lowering the water level by six inches, which will have a "drastic effect," Maccagnano said.  Holliston will pay about $2,200 for its beaver-fighting efforts this year, Maccagnano said.  Marlborough also contends with regular flooding in areas like Bigalow Street, off Concord Avenue and Sudbury Road, according to Board of Health Administrator Robert Landry.  Most recently, the city issued an emergency permit to tackle flooding and wetlands problems caused by beavers in neighborhoods off Spoonhill Avenue, Landry said.  Since the trap ban went into effect, the beavers' handiwork has caused flooding at Assabet Valley High School's sports fields, Landry said.  Landry also worries that flooding will spawn more mosquitoes, which may in turn carry the West Nile virus. "It's a problem that seems like it doesn't go away - three (areas) are always on our radar screen," Landry said.  In Framingham, beavers flood myriad public and private areas, including the Massachusetts Turnpike, according to Framingham Director of Public Health Robert Cooper.  About every other year, beavers flood a swamp and brook behind used car depot Adesa, affecting Bates Road, Cooper said.  They also leave a mess near Florida Drive and off Brook Street, he said. "There's a stream they block up and it floods out to one of our pumping stations. It hasn't flooded it out, but it comes awful close," Cooper said.  In the past couple of years, Framingham has issued four emergency permits to deal with beaver problems, Coopers said. Mass. Pike officials have had to obtain permits to deal with an area along the Framingham portion of the highway, Cooper said.  "It's directly related to that Question 1 on ballot a few years ago that banned trapping. There's been an explosion of beavers since then, and a marked decrease in trapped beavers that's created an explosion in beaver population," Cooper said.  "It's frustrating in that the state foisted the whole beaver permit process on the Boards of Health of towns without asking towns about it," said Cooper.  In Hopkinton, beavers have flooded the Cold Spring Brook area, backed up water on Clinton Street near the bridge, and the Cranberry Cove area, according to Thomas Ryder, public health administrator.  "We've issued 10-day permits quite a few times ... We have a problem with them flooding people's backyards and drying up another area - one pond was totally dried up, and the flooding was very close to a private well," said Ryder. Town officials usually hear about beaver troubles in the fall, he said.  Officials haven't been tagging the beavers, but the population seems to have grown in the last several years, Ryder said.  "We've been hearing from one neighborhood group one year, and another neighborhood group the next year," he said.  Last year, seven beavers were killed in the Cranberry Cove area, he said.  Beavers dam up narrow streams and keep moving downstream, he said.  Even the traps are only a temporary solution, and "beaver deceivers" are not working in Hopkinton, Ryder said.  "The problem is, they just keep coming back. It's one of these things - it's all were going to be doing for a long time," Ryder said.  (Joyce Kelly can be reached at 508-626-4423 or jkelly@cnc.com.)

 


Beaver damage could be pricey for Sherborn   (back to top)

By Steve Bagley/Correspondent

http://www.wickedlocal.com/

Tuesday June 12, 2007

 

Sherborn, MA - They're back.

Beavers have returned to Sherborn and are already causing damage, forcing the Board of Selectmen, at their May 31 meeting, to begin discussing what to do about the damage the animals cause, and how to pay for it. If left unchecked, the flood damage the dams cause may have to be paid for by Sherborns residents. At that meeting, Sherborn resident Eliot Taylor threw his finger into the air. Due to beavers destructive nature to septic systems, he said, The Massachusetts Audubon Society and the state should bear all costs and exterminate all the beavers. They spray for mosquitoes. Beavers do not belong in Sherborn.  Selectmen Chairman Chris Peck and the rest of the board are investigating non-lethal ways to solve the problem. But there was a sense of urgency in the board.  We have to deal with the beavers, said Vice Chairman Paul DeRensis. The board wants to deal with these seasonal trouble-makers nonlethally, and soon.  Jean Bednor, agent for the Sherborn Conservation Commission, said that the flooding started in April, after 4 inches of rain fell in two days. The fire road next to the Dunstable Dam was flooded, and remains under several inches of pond water. The access it provides to the Bailey Trail conservation land is all but cut off, and the surrounding private property is threatened by the flooding. The damming can cause significant damage, including flooding of basements, erosion of land under roadways and the ruining of private septic systems. If a Sherborn residents land is next to a body of water flooded by a beaver dam and their septic system is ruined, the resident, not the town, will have to repair the damage, said Gary Kelleher, of the Sherborn Community Maintenance and Development Department.  Kelleher said that he consulted with a company called Beaver Solutions who worked with Sherborn to deal with flooding two years ago. They have not been hired yet, said Bednor, and even with their help, repairs will not be easy. Repairs will have to occur in steps, because you don't get in there to do anything with the water as high as it is.  Mike Callahan, the owner of Beaver Solutions, said that he had submitted a proposal to Sherborn's Conservation Commission to solve the Washington Street flooding with something called a flexible pond leveler, a weighted tube resting on the bottom of a pond, whose opening is surrounded by a 40-foot-diameter fence cage, which keeps beavers from swimming close to the pipe to detect the flow of water.  The pipe allows water to flow uninhibited beneath beaver dams, and over the tops of man-made dams such as the one by Washington Street.  The main problem facing the Board of Selectmen with this issue is the matter of how to fund the restoration efforts. At the last Board of Selectmen meeting, DeRensis said that the beavers must be dealt with in a wildlife-friendly way, without killing them.  Bednor stressed that the beaver problem is an ongoing one. Twice in the past seven years, the Conservation Commission has had to issue emergency permits to breach beaver dams on the conservation land by Goulding Street, she said, but that's only a temporary fix. Beavers can rebuild a dam within 24 hours, she said.  The Conservation Commission and the State Division of the Fish and Wildlife Services view the removal of beavers only a temporary solution, and not a desirable one, she said. Beavers live in several places throughout the conservation lands surrounding Sherborn, she added.  The Conservation Commission, DeRensis said, doesnt have the money to hire anyone. The money would have to come either from the selectmen themselves or through the CM&D budget.  Dealing with the flood damage without killing the beavers would run a tab of around $3,000, said Kelleher, plus an additional fee for quarterly inspections, he said.  Peck believes that the board can split the funding between fiscal years. If we decide to fund a portion of the project in June, we could do that, and fund some in next years fiscal year which begins on July 1, he said. This is a situation we have to address quickly.  There are a number of places where there are problems, said Peck. We want to make sure we do this the right way.  The Board of Selectmen was slated to review the beaver problem again at their June 12 meeting after this writing.

 

News 7, Boston, Monday, May 14, 2007

 

WEYMOUTH, MA - A coyote is on the attack in Weymouth. Its target: a rottweiler.  Ralph Tarina put his pup on a lease, and a minute later one gutsy coyote attacked. Tarina's dog Daisy is far from dainty. She's a 100-pound rottweiler. The average coyote doesn't even weigh half that much. While the dog and coyote began to wrestle on the ground, Tarina grabbed the first weapon he could find.

 

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Wed Nov 07, 2007, 11:58 PM EST

 

HOLLISTON, MA - Water Commissioners last night decided they are going to try and save the Bogastow Brook beavers one more time before bringing in the trappers.  "I just have to believe there's some way we can (remove the beavers without killing them)," said Water Commissioner Michael Nagle.  At Nagle's request, Water Superintendent Ron Sharpin will contact the Animal Rescue League and Mass. Audubon Society to see if they have a viable alternative to lethal traps - specifically, getting around the state's policy of not allowing transport of live beavers. On Sept. 21, the state inspected the public drinking water at the Well 5 site off Central Street and concluded beavers there pose an immediate threat to the public health.  Beavers commonly carry two life-threatening parasites, giardia lamblia and cryptosporidium, and their dam has created a massive pool of water within 200 feet of Well 5, the state Department of Environmental Protection wrote in a letter to the Water Department. The state requires a 400-foot buffer zone. The state advised the town to immediately remove the beavers and dismantle the dam.

 

 

Felled tree causes outage

By George Barnes – Telegram & Gazette Staff  June 29 '07

Phillipston, MA - Beaver justice may have been behind a power outage that left the entire town in the dark for four hours yesterday. I'm calling it a revenge of the beaver. Police Chief Richard D. Valcourt said. Chief Valcourt said he was called out about 2:15 am for a report of a car crash on Route 2A that might have caused a power outage. The chief said he was aware of the outage because his own power was out. When he arrived, he learned it was not a car crash, but a case of beaver-caused damage. I found a beaver had cut down a large poplar tree in front of Athol Ford, he said. The chief, who also is a state forester, said the tree was about 60 feet tall and was laid neatly across the power lines. He said what made him suspect revenge as a motive was an accident a little more than eight hours before. At 6 p.m. Sunday, at the same spot where the tree was cut, a beaver crossing Route 2A was killed in a hit and run accident. The chief said the furry accident victim was likely from the same family as the tree cutter. He said the downed line could have been a simple logging accident, but he thinks otherwise. I think he lost his family member and that was his revenge, the chief said...

 

 Bradford woman warns her neighbors to keep pets inside   (back to top)
The Eagle Tribune online, Jason Tait

April 20, 2007

Haverhill, MA. -  The sound outside his dark bedroom window was eerie, like a little girl screaming in distress, said 14-year-old Joey Greenwood.  His father, Richard, stepped outside to check the noise and found the familys dog, Buddy, being attacked by a coyote on the front lawn of their Bradford home. The wild canine was on top of the 27-pound cockapoo, chomping on its throat.  Buddy is being treated at an animal hospital for a damaged thorax and severe flesh loss, said Joeys mother, Barbara. The dog is not conscious and may not survive, she said.  Wednesday nights scary experience is spurring Barbara Greenwood to warn her Bradford neighbors to keep their pets inside to avoid Buddy's fate. I'm just concerned, she said. Her concerns are justified, based on what wildlife officials are reporting about coyotes in the area. Suburban sprawl has encroached on the coyote habitat, causing more sightings of coyotes as their forests and open space disappear.  Haverhill Conservation Officer Mark Sheehan said coyote numbers also have been growing over the decades, in part because the animals only predator human hunters are dwindling. Coyotes also are prolific breeders, and their numbers can multiply quickly.  Were taking away their only natural predator, Sheehan said of hunters, though he said motor vehicle collisions are helping. The population is there to grow if they are not culled out.  Coyotes also enjoy living around golf courses, which provide wooded cover to stalk prey in the open fairways, Sheehan said. Haverhill has five 18-hole golf courses.  The typical coyote is the size of a small dog but with longer, thicker fur. The largest can weigh 50 or 60 pounds. They primarily eat small rodents, rabbits, deer, birds, frogs and insects, but also will eat fruits, vegetables and pet food left outdoors. They are most often spotted at night or at dawn or dusk.  It is against the law to trap and relocate coyotes, so residents have to learn to live with the animals, said veterinarian Dr. Tumkur Narasimhan, owner of Main Street Animal Hospital of Bradford. He occasionally treats animals harmed by coyotes, he said.  The best way to limit coyote attacks is to properly dispose of food - do not throw food outside for wild animals to eat, and use trash cans with lids.  As long as we are good in our disposal habits, the attacks wont happen, Narasimhan said. Animal Control Officer Michelle Hamel said coyote sightings are commonplace in Haverhill, seen near Northern Essex Community College, the animal shelter off Primrose Street and the Bradford commuter train station.  She said coyotes look for easy meals, often from garbage or staking out bird feeders, where smaller animals stop to eat, she said.  Sometimes they cross paths with the family pet. They are very opportunistic animals, Hamel said. They will eat whenever food is available.  She said owners should always be aware that their pets can be attacked by wild animals anywhere in Haverhill. Im a firm believer that everyone should keep an eye on their pets, because you never know, Hamel said.  People can easily scare away coyotes with loud noises and bright lights, according to MassWildlife. A water hose also is effective.  The Greenwoods live on Chadwick Road, north of Chadwick Pond in Bradford, a semirural area near the Boxford line, and said Buddy often spent time outside at night.  The attack happened at about 10 p.m.  Wednesday. Joey said he was on the phone when he heard the screaming, looked outside and saw nothing.  I thought maybe it was down the street, like a little girl or something, Joey said of the yelping.  He heard the screams again so he warned his father, Richard, who ran outside and saw the wild animal on Buddy, a cross between a cocker spaniel and poodle.  He yelled at the coyote, which ran off. He carried the bloody and muddy dog into the house and then rushed it to Bulger Animal Hospital in North Andover.  It just seemed unreal to me, Barbara Greenwood said of the attack. Sheehan said that in his 20 years as a conservation professional, most coyote attacks involve cats, chickens and very small dogs, such as Chihuahuas.  Thats not commonplace from what I've seen, Sheehan said of the attack on Buddy. Very seldom do we ever see a coyote get into an altercation with a large dog.  He said the coyote may have needed extra food for a litter of pups, or Buddy threatened it somehow.

 

Coyotes maul, kill family pet
By Christopher Loh/ The Daily News Tribune
Posted Mar 28, 2007 @ 12:01 AM


Newton, MA - Coyotes are being blamed for two separate attacks on dogs in the past week, one of which was fatal. The first attack took place near the Brae Burn Country Club in Waban. The second incident took place about four miles away near Hammond Pond Parkway.  On Thursday afternoon, a woman on Bonnybrook Road in Waban let her small Cairn terrier out for a break in the backyard. A few minutes later, she returned to find the dog in a coyote's mouth with another standing nearby, police said.  The pair of coyotes fled into the woods and was chased by a neighbor wielding a broom. The neighbor chased the coyotes until they dropped the dog, dead from the attack.  Newton Police were called and the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife was contacted, but nothing could be done.  Yesterday, a Beacon Street resident in the Hammond Pond Parkway area heard her yellow Labrador yelp and when it came into the house, the dog had a wound to its rear leg.  The owner went outside and was able to illuminate a pair of eyes in the woods with a flashlight; at approximately 3 a.m., she heard coyotes howling nearby.  Newton Animal Control Officer John O'Connell said the Bonnybrook Road incident is the only coyote attack to be confirmed, but that the Beacon Street report seems likely as well.  O'Connell said coyote attacks are rare in Newton, but have been known to happen."Last year, between Newton and Brookline, there were about five attacks," said O'Connell. "Bonnybrook is the first one to be confirmed this year."  O'Connell said coyotes are typically more aggressive during this time of year as it is breeding season."Coyotes are going to be more active," O'Connell said. "They're going to be more territorial and will potentially get into attacks with larger dogs."  What to do ...  Marion Larson of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife said she had heard of Thursday's attack, but that the division had no direct involvement."Statewide - I get an e-mail at least once a week (about an attack)," said Larson of the frequency of wild animal attacks on domesticated pets. " Probably, an animal is attacking someone's loose pet several times a week in Massachusetts."  And while Larson didn't want to alarm people, she did provide plenty of information regarding coyote safety."Coyotes are wild animals, and like other wild animals they generally try to avoid people," Larson said. "What I recommend is if you see a coyote spending a certain amount of time, or if you know of one that hangs around, go out and run and yell and scream and holler and run straight at them - the coyote is going to turn to leave."  While Larson said she understood this seems like "insane" behavior that it is "coyote language" for "you're not welcome to be here."Larson said the "little things" matter when trying to deter coyotes from an area.  "Our behavior is going to influence a coyote's behavior," Larson said.  So do you leave pet food outside? Do you take the trash out the night before or the morning of pickup?  It's the "little things" that a person can do like taking the trash to the curb the morning of pickup that helps in the long run.  Larson also warned that this time of year is breeding season so larger pets, such as golden retrievers or Labradors, can be seen by coyotes as threats to their territory.  "They will want to defend their area," Larson said.  Still, in the end, Larson stayed with her message of not over exaggerating a problem."There have been three documents of attacks on people by coyotes in the last 50 years," Larson said. "I'm sure there have been more dog bites in one year in the (city) of Newton. But I also understand people are anxious about what they don't understand."
Christopher Loh can be reached at cloh@cnc.com.

 

MassWildlife Advisory: Coyotes Incidents in Massachusetts   (back to top)

February 2, 2007 MDFW report

 

This past week, the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) received a number of calls from concerned citizens, municipal officials and the media regarding an incident over the past weekend involving a coyote attack on a small dog and subsequent shooting of coyotes by local officials in Framingham. Inquiries included concerns regarding the coyotes involved in the incident and the actions of the municipal officials. A number of questions about coyote behavior, pet and child safety and relevant laws about coyotes have also been fielded by MassWildlife biologists. As the state agency responsible for wildlife in Massachusetts, MassWildlife has been working with local officials on this incident and providing information to the public regarding coyote behavior.

 

East Harwich couple mourns dog lost to coyote    (back to top)
Cape Cod Today - Donna Tunney/ dtunney@cnc.com

May 24, 2006


He was gone in an instant, snatched out of his own backyard while his owners were nearby with another family dog. Bear, a 13-year-old, 25-pound, miniature sheltie-Chihuahua mix, was recovered an hour later, after a panicked search through the woods near his East Harwich home, dead from a coyote attack...

 

Dog Recovering After Coyote Attack   (back to top)
Experts Urge Owners To Keep Pets On Leashes

WCVB TV TheBostonChannel.com

POSTED: 5:26 pm EST December 19, 2005

 

BOSTON A dog is recovering Monday after being attacked by a coyote in Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood.  NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that Butters the Corgi will recover.  On Sunday night Butters' owner, John Green, said the dog came face to face with four coyotes during a walk at the George Wright Golf Course. Butters was not on a leash.  "I believe one coyote attacked him because the other ones were just standing off to the side," Green said.  Massachusetts Society for the Protection of Animals wildlife experts said they are trying to get the word out that coyotes do live in the city and they will attack domestic animals.  "They eat all the time and they have their young that they are trying to teach how to hunt before they disperse. Mating season is coming up in January, February and March, and the young from this past year will be getting ready to move on and look for their own territory," MSPCA's Cheryl Jacobson said.  Jacobson urged pet owners to keep their animals on leashes because coyotes are afraid of humans.

 

 

 

 

Hiker Describes Coyote Attack - Man Fights Off Animal With Mace    (back to top)
WCVB TV TheBostonChannel.com                                                               
POSTED: 6:20 pm EDT April 20, 2006

Royalston, MA - A hiker spoke out Thursday about a coyote attack in Royalston. NewsCenter 5's David Boeri reported that John Melvin, of Gardner, is receiving rabies treatment after he was bitten by a coyote in the town Monday.  "I began making my dinner. At that time, I noticed coyotes coming down the ridge. They were across the river at that time. I didn't think much of it," Melvin said. When Melvin saw three coyotes, he said he thought they wouldn't cross the river. He was wrong. "That's when I looked up. I noticed the three in the corner. I had a stick -- a long stick -- near me. I slammed it down to scare them and that's when the one lunged on my arm and shook it like a rag doll," Melvin said.  He suffered eight puncture wounds before he sprayed the coyote with some bear mace. "We are saying that the coyote is very much a public threat," Royalston resident Chet Hall said.  The coyote that bit Melvin was presumed to be rabid. Signs have been posted to warn hikers. "We are suggesting that anyone in the town of Royalston that sees a coyote in the daytime that is acting abnormally, if they have the ability to do so, to shoot the coyote if they can," Hall said.  Since 1992, eight people have been bitten by coyotes known to be rabid, officials said.

 

Coyote in attack was rabid, state says Northborough man, 76, was bitten multiple times   (back to top)

By Kristen Green, Globe Correspondent  |  October 8, 2005

 

State health officials have determined that the coyote that attacked a 76-year-old Northborough grandfather on an afternoon walk with his grandson was rabid.  Arthur Cole, who was bitten multiple times, received a rabies vaccination yesterday. Cole said he was walking with his 4-year-old grandson, Nicholas, along a trail on the Assabet River near his home Wednesday afternoon when the coyote jumped out of nearby brush and bit him on the rear. ''I was trying to kick her away," he said. ''She was more agile than I was."

 

Dog is killed by coyote in Boston yard   (back to top)

 

By Heather Allen, Globe Correspondent | May 3, 2005

Boston MA - In a quiet neighborhood atop a hill with groomed lawns and tulips in bloom, it was the last interruption anyone expected to the serene city setting.  Late last Thursday, minutes after he let his dog outside, David Sherris responded to chirping behind his house in Jamaica Plain. He was horrified to see his beloved West Highland terrier, Maggie, in the mouth of a coyote.  When Sherris approached the wild animal, it dropped the 18-pound dog and fled into the woods. The small bundle of white, shaggy hair, which Sherris described as part of the family, did not survive.  ''The fact of the matter is that this is a residential area; this should not be happening," said Sherris in the home on Neillian Crescent that he shares with his wife and 14-month-old son. ''Additionally shocking is that it could have been my baby. It happened in less than five minutes."  Dismayed that Maggie, his companion for 12 years, was dead, Sherris called police to see if they could kill or trap the coyote. He was told that under state law, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, and other wild animals are protected.  The city's Animal Control officers searched for the coyote Thursday and Friday, but failed to locate it or a den. Had they found it, they would have had to release it back into its habitat, which could have been a few miles away, said James Cahill, director of animal control in Boston.  Cahill said the number of coyote sightings in the city has increased in the past year, especially in West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and Mattapan, which he attributed to construction in suburban areas that is forcing coyotes to go elsewhere for food.  ''Someone's going to get hurt; it's inevitable," Cahill said. ''It's out of our control.  I hope it doesn't happen.  Some little tyke is going to get bit some day. Something could happen. I hope it never does on my watch. Your hands are tied a little bit."  Because of the pet's death, Councilor John M. Tobin Jr. announced plans last night to go before the City Council tomorrow to seek a hearing on the issue. Tobin said he would like representatives from animal control and from the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to testify at the hearing, which he hopes will happen soon.  ''Clearly, those laws weren't written for what's going on these days," said Tobin, who lives in West Roxbury and came across a coyote in his backyard three months ago. ''With all due respect to coyotes, the law seems to favor coyotes over people's pets or their kids. I can almost see it in a country setting, but for a city like Boston, that's not acceptable."  To counter state law, the City Council may be forced to file a home rule petition to change the way the law is enforced in Boston. The Legislature would then have to vote for such a change.  Reached last night for comment, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, which oversees fisheries and wildlife, said the agency is willing to work with lawmakers.  ''A proper balance always needs to be struck between public safety and concern for protected species," said Joe O'Keefe. ''We would always be willing to work with the Legislature on a responsible response to concerns of Boston residents." Sherris, a consultant who works from his house, said Maggie was sweet, curious, and loved children. She often perched in the window and stared outside. Now, Maggie is buried in the backyard, Sherris said, and reminders of the pet are everywhere. His daily routine, he said, has become difficult. His wife is afraid to go outside.  Sherris said he is waiting to see what happens with the City Council before he takes action.  ''The loss of this dog is just really gut-wrenching," he said. ''It's just not been easy."

 

Coyote attacks off-duty Police officer and daughter    (back to top)

April 2005 Wilmington Massachusetts - Reported in the 'The Lowell Sun' Newspaper

 

Wilmington, MA - There are some things in life that not even 17 years as a prison guard and police officer can prepare you for. Wilmington Police Officer and former Concord prison guard Louis Martignetti found that out the hard way Saturday when a coyote attacked his daughter and then him while his family did yard-work at their home off Burlington Avenue. Martignetti, his wife, 7-year-old son, Gino, and 4-year-old daughter, Tia, were outside when the animal ran up and bit his daughter in the leg about 10 a.m. Martignetti, who was in his shed at the time, heard his wife's screams, but at first did not know what was going on. "She started screaming something like, ‘Pick up the baby, pick up the baby,' but it happened so quick I didn't understand what she wanted me to do," he said.  That's when he turned and saw a coyote lunge at his daughter, who only weighs about 28 pounds, and bite her in the leg. Full Story Here

 

It's only the second such recorded attack in Massachusetts; no such attacks are on record in R.I.

04:10 PM EST on Friday, February 18, 2005

The Associated Press

 

BARNSTABLE, MA - A Cape Cod woman who was bitten on her left hand is believed to be the first person ever attacked by a rabid coyote in Massachusetts, according to state wildlife officials.   Cindy Parker-Kelley was attacked by a 45-pound female coyote in the back yard of her Marstons Mills home yesterday when she went to check on her Norwegian elkhound, Dakota. Her husband, David Kelley, beat the coyote with a piece of lumber, and police later killed it.

 

By Cristina Silva, Boston Globe Correspondent  |  July 14, 2005

 

SAUGUS, MA - Kathy Sullivan returned home last week to find a coyote chasing a neighbor's dog on her driveway. She beeped at the creature, but it just stopped and looked at her. Sullivan tried to continue driving, but the coyote wouldn't budge.  Afraid that she was trapped in the car with her 2-year-old niece and 8-year-old daughter, Sullivan kept honking at the coyote until it finally crossed the street and ran up a nearby grassy hill, giving her enough time to run into the house with the children.  ''I'm telling you, that thing was not afraid of me," Sullivan said yesterday. ''Somebody is going to end up getting hurt if they don't do something about this."

 

Coyote bites country club security guard in Mashpee   (back to top)

Portsmouth Herald - Seacoastonline.com, July, 12 2005

 

MASHPEE, MA. - A security guard at a Mashpee country club was treated for rabies as a precaution after being bitten by a coyote last week. A guard patrolling the grounds of Willowbend Country Club was bitten on Thursday night after apparently disturbing the coyote as it was rooting through some bags of illegally dumped household trash for food, Mashpee's animal control officer said. "It was over food apparently," Officer June Daley told the Cape Cod Times. "It did break the skin on his leg, so he was treated for rabies as a precaution." Daley did not disclose the guard's name. Earlier this year, a Barnstable woman was bitten by a rabid coyote in what state officials said was just the second reported coyote attack on a human in the state. Several small dogs have disappeared in Mashpee this summer, and coyotes are suspected. Daley cautioned dog owners to not let their dogs out without a leash, even if the dog never leaves the yard. "Unless your back yard is enclosed with a 6-foot fence, it's fair game for wild animals," she said. Information from: Cape Cod Times, http://www.capecodonline.com

 

Beaver dams contaminating water By Mark E. Ellis – Telegram & Gazette Staff

 

Sterling, MA - Contamination of town drinking water caused by an overflowing beaver pond may be a preview of more widespread water-quality problems. Unless the trapping restrictions are eased, state and local officials said yesterday.   “We have a growing concern about the burgeoning beaver populations, given the lack of natural predators and the prohibition imposed on trapping opportunities,” said Joseph M. McGinn, director of watershed management for the Metropolitan District Commission.  “The population is certainly expanding by leaps and bounds.”  Because of the proliferation of beaver in the state’s major drinking water supplies, the MDC has implemented beaver tracking and eradication programs at Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs, McGinn said.   In Sterling, where E. coli contamination was discovered in the municipal water system last week, water tests indicated that coliform contamination remained present in minute amounts in recent test results.  “The most recent sampling was on Monday and of 12 samples, 10….  Please take a look at the article written by Louis Manning then Superintendent of Public Works for Sterling Mass.  Written in 2002.  click here

 

Dog is killed by coyote in Boston yard

   (back to top)

By Heather Allen, Boston Globe Correspondent  |  May 3, 2005

  

 

Boston, MA - In a quiet neighborhood atop a hill with groomed lawns and tulips in bloom, it was the last interruption anyone expected to the serene city setting.  Late last Thursday, minutes after he let his dog outside, David Sherris responded to chirping behind his house in Jamaica Plain. He was horrified to see his beloved West Highland terrier, Maggie, in the mouth of a coyote. When Sherris approached the wild animal, it dropped the 18-pound dog and fled into the woods. The small bundle of white, shaggy hair, which Sherris described as part of the family, did not survive. ''The fact of the matter is that this is a residential area; this should not be happening," said Sherris in the home on Neillian Crescent that he shares with his wife and 14-month-old son. ''Additionally shocking is that it could have been my baby. It happened in less than five minutes."

 

Main Street Beaver Situation   (back to top)
April 7, 2005
Town of Bolton Selectmen meeting.

Present: David Lindsay, Russ Karlstad, Tim Fiehler, Pat Bensetler, Cia Boynton, Jack Quinlan, Martha Remington, Betsy Cussen, Karen Augustine, Conservation Commission member

Bolton, MA - Karen Augustine, Conservation Commission member stated that the Conservation Commission has spent about $3,500 so far on the beaver situation. Initially the Conservation Commission sent Beaver Solution out and problem was mitigated for a while. With recent rain the level has risen. Ms. Augustine stated that the Conservation Commission can go back and try to extend the contract with Beaver Solutions.  Mr. Quinlan took a walk through the area starting at the town park through path at Emerson School where Playground is all flooded. A number of saplings have been taken down by beavers. He continued walking down the cart path passed Emerson where there is a dam with a pipe which seems to be running pretty well. There are at least two beaver ponds and a giant beaver dam and he does not see a pipe there. He suggested a site walk be done. Mr. Quinlan strongly urged that beavers be taken out to eliminate the habitat.  Tim Fiehler stated that the beaver fencing was installed and it does help to the extent that he does not have to go down every day to pull things out. The beavers are active and it looks as though they will be dropping some large trees behind the historical society building soon. The historic bridge has eroded away.  Pat Bensetler suggested taking beavers out and then cleaning up the dams. Martha Remington, as a resident reiterated the need to get rid of the beavers so that the dams can be taken down. Cia Oschenbein agreed with what everyone has said. She feels we have gotten to this point because each year the water has gotten higher and higher and the runoff has created this huge problem. The bridge from sheep field to Emerson has huge holes in it again.  Mr. Quinlan stated the immediate solution is to take the beaver dams down to draw the water level down to solve the problem of flooding the properties. The Board of Selectmen was favorable to the breaching of the dams with understanding that it would be coordinated with the Conservation Commission and the Board of Health.

 

What about the Beavers?   (back to top)

 

To trap, or not to trap: Question lingers in light of beaver problems
By Chronicle Staff
Thursday, December 30, 2004

 

 

"[Beaver population growth] feels like a larger issue than just a matter of not trapping," said Lash. "But you do have to thin the herd, so to speak. If populations aren't thinned by man, we can end up with all kinds of severe issues."

The CLA, according to Lash, has reluctantly accepted trapping in an outlet brook where beavers have, in the past few years, dammed Chebacco Lake and caused severe flooding and health problems for lakeside homeowners. "It's the only effective short-term management solution we know of," said Lash, who explained the CLA has been allowed to enlist the help of trappers using cages because of the ecologically valuable alewife fish that spawn in the outlet brook.
 
Certain water-flow devices, referred to by Jacobson, may discourage beavers from doing their work, but have been found to hinder alewife spawning, thus prompting a trapping alternative to the problem. The Chebacco Woods Trails Association has installed two of the so-called "beaver deceiver" contraptions between Beck's Pond and Chebacco Lake, and Lash is a bit leery of that strategy. "While it's a non-trapping solution, alewife have been known to spawn in Beck's Pond," said Lash, "which means we have a less than perfect solution there because it further shrinks adequate spawning areas for the alewife."
 
The International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies report concluded the 1996 no-trapping law in Massachusetts caused the beaver population to explode, thus creating economic hardships.
 Massachusetts municipalities spent $500,000 to repair road and infrastructure damaged by beavers in 2004, said the report, and IAFWA officials said that expenditure was "minor" compared to the costs associated with beaver-related personal property damage, contamination of public water supplies, flooding of private property and costs associated with removing nuisance beavers. Lash, however, sees the economic impact from a broader perspective. "To me, beavers are more than just a nuisance. In terms of the larger economy of New England, beavers don't have as great an impact as alewife," he said. "We should be giving far more attention to alewife because it helps sustain our marine fisheries industry."
 
At this time, noted Lash, there are beavers at Chebacco Lake's outlet brook, but they are not causing the severe problems encountered earlier. Still, he said added, the CLA is currently initiating contact with a trapper to use a cage that will help keep the population in check. The use of cage traps, according to Lash, does not require a permit from the Board of Health. Any property owner is allowed to enlist the aid of a cage trapper during the appropriate season. "We haven't had a big problem lately because there have been far fewer beavers," said Lash. "But if we were to ignore the situation, within a year we'd have a large colony and be back with same problems as we had a year ago."

 

The reason for Massachusetts' burgeoning beaver population, which has caused humans so many difficulties with flooding, especially on Chebacco Lake in Hamilton, is one not readily agreed upon. A recent report from the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies insists the state's 1996 law restricting the methods of trapping beavers has been followed by an explosion in their population and an increase in related damage to roads and personal property.Based on the projections included in the report, "Potential Costs of Losing Hunting and Trapping as Wildlife Management Tools," the problems will get worse unless trappers regain wider access to trapping devices. However, Cheryl Jacobson, coordinator of the Living with Wildlife program for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has a different perspective. Calling the report incomplete and misleading, she noted, "Beaver populations were increasing before the 1996 law and studies indicate that beaver populations, if left untouched, will eventually regulate themselves because beavers are territorial and will not grow beyond available territory. Trapping is a Band-Aid solution." Jacobson further believes specially designed water-flow devices, some of which have been installed in Hamilton and Wenham, "work to alleviate beaver-related damage and provide assistance to landowners in a cost-effective and long-term manner." David Lash, former president of the Chebacco Lake Association (CLA) in Hamilton, feels Jacobson's perspective is more accurate, but doesn't dismiss the value of some trapping, specifically with cages instead of kill traps.   J.J. Bowman, of the State House News Service, contributed to this story

 

Cat seriously injured after evading coyote; Attacks on household pets are particularly common in spring, state expert says   (back to top)
The Patriot Ledger - Joe McGee
April 30, 2004


Hanson MA - A 15-year-old cat that fell from a tree in Hanson after being chased by a coyote will probably be euthanized.  Haley, a black shorthair belonging to Laura McColgan of Adams Circle, bolted up the tree yesterday morning to escape an adult coyote. It suffered serious injuries when it fell while trying to come down.  Veterinarians at Roberts Animal Hospital in Hanover put the cat on intravenous fluids and pain medication and said surgery would be needed if Haley was to walk again. But McColgan said the operation would be too expensive, making euthanization likely.  "It's just so sad," she said. "My daughter was crying."The state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife warns pet owners that coyotes give birth in the spring and are looking for food for their pups. Keeping small pets, such as cats and toy-breed dogs, indoors is strongly recommended.  "Breeding season is January through March, and there is a 63-day gestation period, so they're having their pups now," said Chrissie Henner of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. "We're receiving more calls about (coyote) litters under decks and porches."  McColgan's 15-year-old son, Michael Calley, spotted the coyote at about 7 a.m. on his way to school. The animal was under the tree, waiting for the cat to come down. Although surprised by its size, Michael shooed the coyote away.  "He started coming towards me," he said. "I had to make noise to get it away from me.""It was pretty big. It was tall and had a skinny face and nose and large tail. I've seen a little coyote before, but this one was big."  When the coyote ran off, Michael and his mother tried to coax Haley into a clothes basket, but the cat couldn't make the leap. "I just thought, 'That poor cat,'" McColgan said. Adams Circle is close to the Hanover border, and near Harvey Circle, where packs of coyotes scared neighborhood residents two years ago.  Although land is being cleared in the area, Henner discounted the notion that coyotes are being forced out of their habitat and into subdivisions. Like rats, raccoons and opossums, coyotes are scavengers that can survive in close proximity to humans, she said.  "They do well around humans. They're highly adaptable." Police filed a report on the Adams Circle incident, but officers are allowed to shoot or remove a wild animal only if it is sick or injured. Police Lt. Richard Gredler said calls to the department about coyote sightings are more frequent at this time of year. Gredler said the calls aren't limited to the Hanover side of Hanson. Henner offered these suggestions to suburban residents who want to keep coyotes away:  Keep trash barrels tightly covered. Don't put crumbs in the yard as bird food. Block openings to crawl spaces and the space under decks. Keep small pets inside at all times. If a coyote approaches, make loud noises; it should instinctively run away, Henner said.  Joe McGee may be reached at jmcgee@ledger.com.

 

Comeback Beavers Butt Heads With Humans: Strong population recovery   (back to top)

National Geographic News November 23, 2004 - Brian Handwerk

 

November's full moon, coming this Friday, is traditionally called the full beaver moon, because it signals the time to set traps for beavers before swamps freeze.  A gentler interpretation of the name given to the November moon, according to the Farmers' Almanac, is that this is when busy beavers are feverishly preparing their dens for winter.  Whatever the name's origin, the 2004 full beaver moon serves as a spotlight on North America's largest rodent. Harvested and driven from its habitat until it disappeared from much of the northeastern U.S., the beaver is now making such a strong comeback that it is becoming a nuisance in some areas.  From the mid-1600s through the 1800s beaver trapping helped spur European exploration of North America. Beaver pelts became a prized commodity and were traded as currency in many parts of the frontier. Fortunes were made in their fur.  Beavers were pursued so relentlessly that by the early 1900s many beaver populations were in trouble or wiped out. The situation was aggravated by the clearing of much of the beaver's habitat for agriculture.  "In the 1930s they were at a low point," said beaver expert Dietland Mueller-Schwarze of the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. "But the latter half of the century has seen large growth in populatons all over North America."  Multiple factors favored the beaver recovery. Federal and state authorities, supported by hunters and trappers, enacted sustainable harvesting regulations. Beavers were reintroduced into their former range throughout the northeastern U.S., where the decline of agriculture enabled them to thrive and expand.  Meanwhile, plunging demand for pelts at home and abroad has reduced the number of trappers in the field. Some U.S. states have even banned trapping.  Scott Hartman is the national director of membership and state affiliate relations for the National Trappers Association (NTA), which is based in Bedford, Indiana. He notes that the market for furs and pelts dropped precipitously in the mid-1980s and remained depressed until 2000. Since that time it has seen a slow recovery, but profits remain low for the time-intensive pursuit, which is still practiced by an estimated 150,000 U.S. fur trappers.  The reduced trapping pressure has coincided with the longer-term reforestation of former farmlands.  "With the reforestation of our state, the beaver population has rebounded," said wildlife biologist Peter Picone. Picone works for Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection at the Burlington field office. "In 1800 Connecticut was 75 percent pasture. Today it is 57 percent forested and the [restored] forested habitat is prime for their recovery."  But as beavers flourish and expand, their habitat is increasingly human habitat? and the two mammals often butt heads.

 

"Nature's Engineers"

Beavers (Castor canadensis) can gnaw through a 6-inch (15-centimeter) tree in 15 minutes. A single busy beaver chews down hundreds of trees per year. The trees are used to build lodges and large dams that provide their aquatic habitat. Dams can range from 2 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) in height and stretch more than 100 feet (30 meters) in length.  Streams and lakes are favorite stomping grounds, but water sources like farm ponds, wetlands, and other areas will do, as well.  Picone notes that beavers are among Connecticutt's most problematic animals for humans, likely ranking just behind deer in terms of economic damage. Their tree-felling and large-scale flooding can damage timber and agricultural crops and wash out property and often roads.  "Where humans and beavers can coexist, we encourage it," Picone said. "Beavers create great habitat for other animals. Wood duck, great blue heron, river otter? they all benefit from that habitat that beavers create."  Other benefits include, ironically, flood control through water management, and water storage and purification.  "Everybody sees the negative impact, Mueller-Schwarze said. "People remember the beaver that took down the cherry trees in the [Washington, D.C.] Tidal Basin. The positive effects are harder to see."  The positives are real, but unfortunately for the beavers, so are the negatives.  "The benefits have to be balanced with the damage [beavers cause] to people's property and with flooded roads," Picone said. "It's a tough balance."

 

Trapping: Cruelty or Conservation?

Solutions such as fencing off trees and installing free-flow water devices through dams can mitigate beaver problems and leave habitat intact.  But reviews on their effectiveness are mixed.  Another beaver control method is contested for both its results and its application - trapping.  As trapping for valuable pelts has declined, nuisance-control trapping has grown. States like Connecticut and New York facilitate the process.  "Here in New York they have a management plan where they want to keep the population limited to 20 or 30 percent of the available [habitat] sites along streams, with food and water, in areas where they won't do damage to human works," Mueller-Schwarze said. "The idea is that when the colony produces young beaver [who go off in search of their own turf], they will have a suitable place to go. Using the remaining 70 percent of those sites."  The policy is managed by lethal trapping, though Mueller-Schwarze would prefer to see the animals relocated when possible.  The Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) opposes lethal trapping.  "We oppose the kinds of traps that drown these animals," said biologist John Hadidian, director of HSUS's Urban Wildlife Program. "We oppose the traps that crush them, those that are supposed to break their backs but often don't."  Hadidian argues for better management methods that can help mitigate beaver problems and leave the animals in place with naturally determined numbers.  "We understand that there are people who have trouble dealing with these conflicts, but we don't agree that they need to be lethally disposed of in order to solve these problems," he said. "Even if it was necessary, there are humane ways to do it. These devices that trap them and drown them are inhumane."  NTA's Scott Hartman says that modern traps are a humane way of controlling beaver populations.  He notes that in states like Massachusetts, where trapping has been banned, debate rages over the costs and impact, for good or ill, of the policy of not trapping beavers.  "The animal rights folks have made it an emotional issue," he said. "They're dealing mainly with quality of death and we deal with quality of life. You can't stockpile wildlife, you can only have so many animals living in an area. When populations become too high you get disease and you have more animal-human conflict," he said.  For some that conflict's bottom line is defined by dollars and sense.  "It depends how tolerant the local people are," Mueller-Schwarze said of reactions he's seen to beavers in the neighborhood. "Some are excited and some are annoyed, and the same person may tip from one to the other if the damage gets worse. There was a Cornell University study some years ago that determined that the magic number was 400 [U.S.] dollars. People didn't mind up to that point, but after more damage was caused, they often wanted someone to 'take care' of the beavers," he said.

 

GNAWING PROBLEM DOGS BOLTON MAN BEAVERS' DAMS FLOOD HIS YARD

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The Boston Globe
November 20, 2003
Matt Viser, Globe Correspondent


Bolton MA - It's become a fierce turf war between families.  A $70,000 yard has been flooded; trees felled; 15 lives lost.  But Ethan Harris says, by rights, he should emerge the victor. Unlike his neighbor, he pays property taxes - and he's not in the habit of gnawing on trees and building destructive dams.  Yet for the past 2 1/2 years, Harris has had to think like the family of beavers that has set up camp near his Corn Road home. He tries to anticipate their every move, staying "glued to the weather" to see what they might do next, since they dam in the rain.  Indeed, the beavers have wreaked havoc on Harris's property, washing out his yard and chomping down the trees that screen his view of nearby Interstate 495.  The first incident was in April 2001, six months after he and his wife moved to Bolton to retire. Water gushed from a stream on town-owned conservation land that flows under I-495. His meticulously groomed front yard was transformed into a 3-foot-deep pond - so much for the $70,000 he had spent just months before for mulching, fencing, trees, and a stone driveway.  "I was watching it from the front porch," Harris said. "It happened really quick, all of a sudden." After town officials declined to get involved, Harris obtained emergency permits that allowed him to do some of the work himself. With a sledgehammer, he busted the beavers' dam so that the water would drain from his yard.  He also hired someone to kill the animals - 15, at a total cost of $1,500. This month, the beavers were back. Again the front yard was flooded, and it was left to Harris, with the help of his son, to destroy the dam. But about a dozen beavers remain. And rather than pay for someone to remove them, Harris wants the town to do something about it.   "This is getting to be a real problem here," he said in an interview at his home. "I took care of things the first time with the notion that it would buy time for the town to figure out a more permanent solution.  They never did anything about it."  At Harris's prodding, the town has started to look into the issue, but it is unclear whether it will do anything. "Really, in a way, what the beavers are doing is a natural process. Maybe the people shouldn't be there," said Kenneth F. Troup, selectmen chairman.  But Harris said town officials have an obligation to protect his land. "They do have the liability and responsibility not to flood people's property," he said. "And I can't afford to pay every three months for someone to come and get rid of the beavers. I pay taxes for that kind of stuff."  At a recent meeting, the Board of Selectmen asked Carol Gumbart, the town's conservation administrator, to look into the issue and report back. Gumbart, in an interview this week, said she is calling other towns to see how they have tackled such problems. She is also getting price estimates from companies specializing in beaver removal.  The beaver population has exploded over the past several years, particularly in rural towns like Bolton. State officials estimate that it has gone from 18,000 in 1995 to more than 65,000 today.  The reason, they say, is a ballot initiative approved by voters in 1996 that prohibits certain traps, because they cause a slow, painful death.  An amendment to the law, approved in 2000, allows local boards of health to grant emergency permits to residents to breach dams, fence off culvert openings, or use pipes to drain off ponds.  Harris said if the town has not addressed his concerns within a few weeks, he will consider filing suit. "If I had beavers on my property and it was flooding my neighbor' s yard, you bet he'd be all over me," he said. "I'd be in court in two seconds flat."  Matt Viser can be reached at viser@globe.com.

 

Police officer kills fox following attack; Animal forced woman onto car hood  (back to top)


The Patriot Ledger

 - Paysha Stockton
April 3, 2003


Abbington MA - An aggressive fox attacked a dog, a woman, a bicycle and a police officer on Plymouth Street Monday night.  Janice Abbatangelo was on her way into her home, at 825 Plymouth St., after grocery shopping when she was attacked at about 6:30 p.m., Abington Deputy Police Chief David Majenski said.  When she first saw the strange-looking animal coming her way, she wasn't sure what it was, he said. She quickly realized it was an attacking fox. "She was quite frightened and jumped up on the hood of her car and called us on her cell phone," Majenski said.  The fox got a grip on one of her legs with its jaws but was unable to bite through her thick pants, he said.  The fox ran off after Abbatangelo hit it with one of her bags, Majenski said. She wasn't injured in the attack and was treated by firefighters at the scene, Majenski said.  Police actually received another call about the fox a few minutes earlier, he said. "The fox was acting strangely throughout the neighborhood," he said.  It previously tried to fight a dog. "It was a fox with a bad attitude. It was totally looking for a fight," Majenski said.  Police found the animal in the woman's cellar. It was nipping at a bicycle tire. It then came after officer Kevin Sullivan, who shot it, Majenski said.  "He killed it with one shot." Abington's animal control officer took the carcass away to be tested for rabies, he said.  With spring here and the weather warming, people should watch out for foxes, raccoons, coyotes and skunks behaving strangely, Majenski said.  "If they're near people, that's not normal," he said. Paysha Stockton may be reached at pstockton@ledger.com.

 

Coyote snatches, kills dog; Official says cats are missing, too

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The Patriot Ledger - L.E. Campenella
November 15, 2002


Hull, MA - After nearly a year of sightings with few attacks, a coyote carried off and killed a 25-pound dog this week. Hull Animal Control Officer Megan Hanrahan said King, a 12-year-old Pekinese, was snatched off the porch of Joan Thompson's Summit Avenue house on Tuesday. "When the fall and winter comes, food starts getting scarce for them," Hanrahan said.  The dog had been attacked previously, about nine months ago. Thompson said King was let out at about 7:20 p.m. Tuesday. A family member couldn't react quickly enough when the coyote grabbed the dog by the throat. King was only about five feet from the back door, Thompson said. Family members scoured the neighborhood and spotted the coyote on a hill less than a half-mile away, but it was not carrying the dog. The coyote ran away. Thompson said the family found King dead the next morning in the back yard of a neighbor several houses away.  "We searched and searched, because we didn't want him to be out there somewhere hurt," Thompson said. "Megan (Hanrahan) told us that she didn't think he felt any pain." In June 2001, a 12-year-old, 17-pound poodle needed 12 metal staples in her back after a battle with two coyotes in the back yard of her Atlantic Avenue home. Earlier last year, a 9-pound terrier was carried away and killed by a coyote that witnesses estimated weighed 55 pounds. A trapper hired to hunt the coyote caught and euthanized a 40-pound coyote suspected to be the terrier's killer. The coyote that killed King is believed to be about the same size.  "What is going to happen come winter when there's no food? Are the coyotes going to come up on my porch when I bring my granddaughter out," Thompson said. Hanrahan said the town is "doing everything in our legal power" to capture wild coyotes. She said coyote hunting season is from Nov. 1 to Feb. 28. Only trapping is allowed during November, however, and though shooting is allowed by December, it's illegal to discharge a firearm within 2,000 feet of a dwelling in Hull. "Towns don't want you shooting in town, and the coyotes aren't going to go in the traps. I've been trapping for 50 years and you might catch a gray fox, but coyotes are too smart," said Fred Frazier, a hunter and trapper trying to help the town.  Frazier said the best way to eliminate the coyote problem is to allow trappers to use the soft leg-hold traps that were banned in 1996. "The best thing residents can do is call your state senator or representative and get that law changed," he said.  Frazier said from the signs he has observed, he estimates five coyotes are roaming the town. Hanrahan said coyotes have been seen and have built dens in the area of Summit Avenue, Atlantic Avenue and School Street. A lot of house cats are missing, too, she said. "Wild cats are smart, they see the coyotes coming and get out of the way. House cats, who often grow up with dogs, don't know enough and are the ones who get caught," Hanrahan said. Hanrahan said residents also could be reacting improperly when they encounter coyotes. "Don't run away from them. They'll only chase you, and it gives them the impression the neighborhood is theirs," she said. "Yell, clap your hands. If there's a hose, squirt them with the hose. Do anything you can to scare them."  L.E. Campenella may be reached at lcampenella@ledger.com.

 

Coyote attacks

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The Patriot Ledger - Cathi Jeffrey
September 5, 2002

 

Weymouth MA - I'm a handicapped senior citizen from East Weymouth and recently we have had three pets killed by coyotes on our street alone. I'm sure there are many unreported cases, too.  A pug dog, a beautiful elderly Golden Retriever and my 13-year-old pet cat have been brutally attacked from their own yards and killed.  I've also heard of toddlers and their moms attacked  defending them. Because there was a question of rabies, they had to endure extensive treatment. Is it going to take the death of a child before something is done? Karen Wilbur, Weymouth

 

Pet dog dies after attack by coyotes

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The Patriot Ledger - Anne Trafton
July 24, 2002

 

Duxbury MA. - Coyotes attacked and fatally injured a Duxbury family's cocker spaniel early Sunday morning, police said.  The dog's owners, whom police would not identify, let the cocker spaniel outside around 4 a.m. Sunday. Three coyotes attacked the dog in the family's Maple Pond Lane driveway.  Upon hearing the sounds of the attack, family members turned on outdoor lights, sending the coyotes fleeing, said Duxbury police Lt. Lewis Chubb.  The dog was taken to Roberts Animal Hospital in Hanover, where it later died from its injuries.  It is not unusual for coyotes to hunt small animals like cats and small dogs, said Richard Turner, a wildlife biologist for the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.  "A small dog wouldn't stand much chance against them," he said. Coyotes are very common in southeastern Massachusetts, Turner said.  "It really is amazing what close proximity they live in with human activity," he said. Several cats have disappeared in Duxbury over the past few years, and they may have been eaten by coyotes, Chubb said. He said he could not recall any other cases of coyotes killing a dog.  Turner suggested that pet owners who want to keep coyotes away should be sure to not leave anything in their yards - food and compost heaps, for example - that might attract the predators. Food attracts not only coyotes but also small mammals like rabbits and squirrels that could draw coyotes into the yard.  Turner advised pet owners not to feed their pets outside unless all of the food will be eaten immediately; leftovers could attract coyotes.  Because coyotes can eat so many different things, including small mammals, birds, vegetables, berries and trash, they are well suited to suburban environments.  Coyote pups are born in April and May, so parents are hunting not only to feed themselves but also their young. "These coyotes have got to be hunting hard to get enough food to feed the entire family," Turner said.  He said a good way to scare coyotes away from yards is to "show authority" by making a lot of noise and throwing things at the coyotes. Coyotes rarely carry rabies, but Turner warned that people, especially children, should stay away from any animal that might be rabid.  Anne Trafton may be reached at atrafton@ledger.com.

 

Beavers driving Ipswich batty

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Roads, backyards, trails being flooded

By Coco McCabe – Globe Correspondent December 31, 2001

 

Ipswich MA - A pond, some gently flowing water, tall pines, fruit trees – sounds like a nice place to set up house.  Paul and Josephine Brouillette thought so when they bought the parcel on Essex Road in Ipswich next to Norman Pond.  But others had designs on the same place: beavers.  Since the rodents moved in, they have been busy staking out their turf with a dam an rising water levels that are turning portions of backyards (including the Brouillettes’) into wetlands, soaking nearby Heartbreak Road like a sponge, and transforming a horse paddock into a puddle of goo.  “It’s like having a big toilet that doesn’t flush.  After a while it get ugly,” said Neil St. John “Ted” Raymond, who lives on Heartbreak Road.  “It’s adversely affecting the value of people’s property.” Beavers, it seems are everywhere.  Across town, water is creeping toward John Barowy’s hay field from the dam beavers built on the Miles River in the past couple of months.  Not far away, in Hamilton, workers recently replaced a bridge on Moulton Street where beavers repeatedly clogged the flow of water.  Member of the Essex County Trail Association, which promotes trail preservation in Essex, Wenham, Topsfield, Ipswich, and Hamilton, are worrying about keeping some of their connecting trails open now that beavers have started to flood them.  And Elizabeth Brown, who lives on Farrington Lane in Hamilton near the Miles River, has watched her evergreens topple and puddles appear in the woods from beavers raising the level of water in the marsh nearby….

 

 

Coyote attacks a child; first time in State   (back to top)

Boy, 3 is rescued; Questions raised

by Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff  July 31, 1998

 

SANDWICH, MA – A coyote sprang from the woods and attacked a 3-year old boy Wednesday evening as he played on his back yard swing set here, the first documented case of a coyote attacking a human in Massachusetts and one of only a dozen cases nationwide.  The boy was rescued when his mother kicked and punched the coyote, wresting her bleeding son from its clutches.  The animal then began growling at the boy’s 5-year old sister, who was at the top of the swing set, before police officers arrived and killed it.  Daniel Neal was treated and released early yesterday at Children’s Hospital in Boston for bites to the head, arm, chest and back.  As a precaution, he was given the first battery of shots for rabies.

 

Dog recovers after coyote attack   (back to top)

 

Rouge River Valley, NJ - May 17, 2007

Kevin Hill Staff Writer

 http://www.journalgroup.com/Canton/4470

 

First, Janice Palis stopped to admire the three coyotes peeking through the brush at her and her 10-year-old golden retriever, Duke. Then, there was no time to think at all. The animals descended on the 95-pound dog as he stood 6 feet away from Palis. In the frenzy, Palis grabbed the first stick she could find, waved it in the air and shouted at the coyotes. They backed off, she said, but didn’t retreat very far. “That’s what I think was the scariest part for me—is that they didn’t seem to have the fear of me or him,” she said. The incident occurred May 8 in the Koppernick section of the William P. Holliday Nature Preserve. In March, a coyote attacked a poodle in the backyard of a Westland home near Hines Park. That case was different from the attack on Duke, said William Craig, president of the citizen-run Holliday Nature Preserve Association. “Coyotes going into your backyard is another thing. That is a matter of citizens and their local government,” he said. There is no prohibition against bringing dogs into the Holliday Nature Preserve. Wayne County, which owns and oversees the land as part of the parks system, is currently studying its rules and regulations. Vanessa Denha-Garmo, a county spokesperson, urged caution when entering the preserve. “We’ve been telling people to stay in a well-lit area and in open areas of the park, and to keep your dog on a leash.” Craig said a leash is a good idea, but not bringing dogs at all is an even better one as coyotes multiply in the area. “It just warrants some caution under those circumstances,” he said. Palis, who said the beauty of the preserve made it her favorite place to walk Duke for the past eight years, never thought she had a reason to fear. “I have seen coyotes in the past, but nothing that’s come close to challenging us, scaring us,” she said. “From a distance, and typically when I’ve seen them it’s rare and it’s beautiful, and then they’re off, they’re gone.” Not this time, though. Palis said she and Duke had walked 200 yards into the woods from an entrance to the preserve in Canton Township. After the attack, she said, the coyotes stalked her and a limping Duke all the way back to the car. Duke was recovering nicely this week, taking longer and longer walks through the friendlier environs of the Fox Run subdivision in Canton. On Monday, he dozed in the living room as Palis recalled once seeing Brownie troops in the preserve. “Would it attack a child? If someone were small, trailing to pick something up?” she asked. “I was in a nature preserve. So, I understand I’m in a special area. But still, if it’s not safe, that’s an issue. “I would love to go back, but right now I’m not going to,” she said. “I don’t know. I mean, I want to, just because I love it there so much.”

 

Youth Foils Coyote Attack on Boy in N.J.   (back to top)

 

Posted by the Associated Press April 12, 2007

Wildlife officials are investigating what could be the first coyote attack on a human in New Jersey following a backyard attack on a toddler that was foiled by an 11-year-old.  Playing in the back yard of his Middle Township home with his 22-month-old nephew over the weekend, 11-year-old Ryan Palludan first thought the animal that bolted into the yard  just before dark was a deer. But when it grabbed little Liam Sadler in its jaws, Palludan instinctively sprang into action, yelling and kicking at the attacker which was later determined to be a coyote.

 

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