As wildlife behavior shifts, councilors eye human changes

May 20—SALEM — Holly Varela didn't think her household was about to become the face of a new city ordinance. But then a coyote approached the stroller carrying Keanu, her and Ward 7 Councilor Andy Varela's 7-month-old child, and it didn't back off until Holly aggressively shooed it away.

"Our coyote (activity) here on Cedarcrest Avenue has been fairly manageable, up until the last couple months," said Andy Varela, who is also the co-owner of Maitland Mountain Farm. "They're definitely attracted to the trash, any food that's possibly left out that they're definitely trying to fish for."

"At this point, it's becoming so much of a nuisance that they're attracted to young children now," he said. "It's kind of alarming."

The issue isn't so much a coyote menace itself — they're just looking for food — but rather Varela and Councilor at-large Alice Merkl are focused on trying to curtail activity that's only drawing in more coyotes — and other wildlife — to people's neighborhoods: Misplaced kindness by humans.

"We've had people feeding skunks in their yard in Ward 2," Varela said, referring to the ward that includes downtown Salem, the McIntire Historic District and Salem Common. "I understand people love animals and they love to see them around, but once they start really relying on a human for a food source, it can get out of hand really quickly."

Nature calls for food service

Each spring, animal control officers sound alarms to residents: Don't leave small animals out unattended, and keep dogs on leashes when walking through the woods. Failure in either case could cost you your pet.

The alarms are commonly associated with coyotes, which enter a breeding season to begin each spring and tend to appear more frequently to humans as they too break free of the snowpack. But coyotes aren't the only animals emerging from the tree lines in search of food in 2022.

"The last couple weeks, the calls have been more toward the raccoons," said Don Famico, Salem's animal control officer. "They've been delivering their babies and are out and about, scurrying for food."

This has been alarming residents, Famico said, because so many feel a daytime sighting of a raccoon is an indication of rabies.

Callers "have this thing that says they shouldn't be out during the day," Famico said. "They're climbing trees... That's what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to be getting a food supply, and food is drying out."

But many animals are finding the food they seek on silver platters, left by well-intentioned residents.

"People feeding them is making the animals less apt to be able to take care of themselves," Famico said, noting people who give human food to birds at Salem Willows. "They keep bringing bagfulls of nuts and bread and all kinds of stuff down here, which according to Fish and Wildlife, isn't good for them."

The situation had already inspired the two city councilors to take action before a coyote approached Keanu Varela Thursday morning.

"It came from concern about the increases in wildlife interacting with people and being a threat to pets, and also for their own well being," Merkl said. "I hear about it at the Willows."

Not yet knowing what had taken place with Varela, Merkl pointed to a recent example of an animal becoming a victim of human kindness: A wild bear that had grown accustomed to being fed by a helpful human who then left the area. The bear began visiting other homes in search of food, at which point the animal was deemed a danger to humans and relocated to a densely wooded area with no human activity. The bear was also fitted with a tracker for monitoring, Merkl explained.

The bear was later found dead from starvation, she said, because they likely didn't know how to survive in the wild without human support.

"It's well-meaning people that want to feed wildlife, and in researching this myself, I've learned how detrimental it is to feed them, for issues of displacement, for something you might not realize is harmful to feed them," Merkl said. "That's what we're hoping to achieve with these ordinance changes."

Discouraging a 'good' deed

Nancy Gilberg, a Salem resident and staunch advocate for wildlife on the North Shore, has made defending coyotes a personal mission of hers. She's been following the coyote "issue" for eight years, she explained, after she noticed a lot of residents in fear of them on social media.

"In most instances, the day-to-day reality didn't match the level of fear," Gilberg said. "I learned that nearly all negative interactions between coyotes and humans were the result of direct or indirect feeding by people, in which coyotes become habituated to that and learn to expect it, leading them to venture closer to us than they normally would.

"So one of the easiest ways to prevent conflict, to keep humans and pets AND coyotes safe, is to keep wildlife wild," Gilberg said. "Never feed them."

Merkl and Varela's ordinance would make several changes to Salem's animal ordinances. It most notably adds a section 8.4 — "FEEDING OF WILD ANIMALS, WILDLIFE, AND BIRDS." It outlines that no person can "provide access to food to any wild animal or birds within City of Salem on city owned land." Even further, trash, pet food and other ways of storing smelly things must be stored so that they don't attract "any wild animal or wildlife on city owned land."

It remains unclear how fines will play out with the new ordinance, which hasn't been filed yet with the council, Varela explained. But the whole goal is to give Famico more teeth to go after the real cause of the coyote "problem." The rules will go before the council next week and are expected to be sent to the public health and safety committee for deliberations.

"I understand that coyotes and other wildlife will take our chickens. It's a normal part of agriculture, and I have no problem with that," Varela said. "Once they start becoming a little more aggressive and aren't scared off by humans... this is where this becomes an issue."

Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.

Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.