Coyotes in Hyde Park/Hancock Park

tl/dr: Please keep your cats inside if you’re located in Central Austin. This coyote has killed 4 cats that I know of in the past week alone.

I live in Hancock Park above the creek bed. Two weeks ago, at 10 am, I was walking down the block to feed a feral street cat I named Emmy. A coyote was walking down the same street. My heart sank.

Last Friday, I fed Emmy in the morning. A kind couple feeds her each evening. She was missing for her evening meal and has been missing since. Emmy never misses a meal and she never wanders far. I looked everywhere for her and I notified neighbors. We assume the worst. I loved her dearly and spent September attempting to socialize her in my home.

Last night, I pulled into my driveway at 7:15 pm. The coyote had killed an orange cat and was actively eating it. It was feet away from me and was not easily deterred. It was a gruesome sight. My neighbor’s cat was out at the same time within feet of the coyote. I caused a panic and alerted everyone. Despite multiple people being out, this coyote was not easily deterred and made multiple attempts to return back to the cat’s body. Luckily, my neighbor’s were able to get their cat inside.

This morning, the man who owns the orange cat who died last night came by to ID his cat from the video footage I took. His name was Buddy.

I know of two more reports of cats who have been killed in a 3 block radius of where I live in the past week. I have knocked on the door of every house I know that has a cat to warn them. Some are indifferent. I let my cats out for an hour each day fully supervised. I never let them out of sight. I understand the importance of this supervised enrichment in their lives, but cannot in good conscience take them out despite their desire to be outside.

Animal Control called me and said they don’t do anything to quell the population. The two pieces of advice I got were to not feed the coyotes (apparently some people are feeding them in the area) and to keep my cats indoors.

All this to say, protect your cats and keep them inside. If the coyotes continue to have unfettered access to a ‘food supply’, we will never be rid of them.