The coyote perched atop the cinder-block wall 25 feet across the lawn from Candy Julian's screen door, dangling its paws and eyeing her family's two miniature schnauzers.
"We started screaming. My son grabbed a shovel," the 45-year-old fitness instructor said of her run-in with a coyote one evening late last month in her Yorba Linda backyard. "I was screaming 'The dogs! The dogs!' "
Her family chased off the coyote. But some neighbors haven't been so lucky, losing cats and small dogs and fearing for their children's safety.
Julian's neighborhood is not far from Chino Hills State Park, which borders Yorba Linda on the north and east and which is the usual home of wildlife. But the burned hills from last year's massive Freeway Complex fire and an extended drought have driven prey and predators into much closer contact with humans.
Over the last year, coyotes have increasingly strayed into the landscaped backyards and parks of the 65,000-person suburb, sizing up dogs, cats, chickens -- even toddlers -- as their natural food supply dwindled. They're using the town's trail system to get around and drinking from an artificial lake surrounded by houses.
Complaints to city officials and animal control officers soared, and street signs became bulletin boards for missing-pet fliers about small dogs and cats that were more than likely snatched up by coyotes.
The problem was alarming enough that the city posted coyote alerts and set up a hotline that now receives about four calls a day reporting coyotes scurrying over backyard fences or making off with a cat or dog.
And last month, after tracking the creatures for six months, the city hired a trapper -- at a cost of $3,500 for 10 days -- who roamed four areas of the foothills, using scents to attract and snare nine coyotes, which were euthanized.
"We really feel terrible about this whole situation, but if we had to beat up a coyote with a shovel, we'd do it in a second, because they're just eating up so many animals around us, it's just crazy," Julian said.
Yorba Linda is not alone. Huntington Beach and Los Alamitos, among others, also have hired people to trap and destroy problem coyotes.
The city's tactics do not have universal support. Some residents have complained, calling the killings inhumane. Wildlife authorities question whether the effort will do any good.
