Massachusetts Town to Become First to Actively Shoot and Kill Coy

Recently, coyotes in Massachusetts have been an issue throughout the state. There have been several reports of coyote attacks in the past months and now one town in the Bay State is looking to take matters a step further to remedy the situation. The Massachusetts town has approved the hiring of federal sharpshooters so they may kill 'habituated coyotes'.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Wildlife Services is working in conjunction with the city of Nahant, MA to address the issue. Nahant officials voted to sign an agreement after there have been several reports throughout the community that residents were being stalked and then surrounded by coyotes in the town, as the residents had been out walking their pets.

According to WCVB, Board Chairman Gene Canty states:

The town of Nahant, like many other communities, has been dealing with habituated coyotes with multiple documented cases of aggressive behavior toward residents...MassWildlife has authorized our community to dispatch the problem coyotes but our legal options of ways to do that are limited, ineffective, and not practical.

The sharpshooters will go into the town sometime within the next week in an area where the coyotes tend to gather and pick them off, using rifles. It's estimated by MassWildlife that there are approximately a dozen coyotes within the one-square-mile of the suburban town of Nahant.

However, not everyone in and around the town is on board with the decision to bring in the sharpshooters. Nahant residents have said the decision is sickening and horrible. They have also said that the town should learn to coexist with the coyotes.

Some people have take to social media to display their objections to the decision:

The argument from the town of Nahant is that non-lethal measures have been unsuccessful in the past. Box-cage traps have had a low late of success as well. There have been only three trappings within the past 10 years.

In 2021, the federal government killed approximately 64,000 coyotes throughout the U.S.

There definitely several residents on both sides of the issue whether to take action via the sharpshooters or not. However, it seems that Nahant has agreed to take action with legal force through the sharpshooters. Nahant is the first town in Massachusetts to hire sharpshooters to actively shoot to kill coyotes.