Nahant coyote info meet rescheduled for Feb. 16

NAHANT – The informational coyote meeting that was scheduled for tonight has been postponed due to the predicted snowstorm.The meeting will instead be held on Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.Town officials scheduled the informational session due to concerns about coyotes in town.Laura Hajduk, a fur-bearer biologist for the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, is scheduled to speak at the upcoming meeting. She said her 45-minute talk will be followed by a question-and-answer period.After a selectmen’s meeting in December attended by a group of concerned citizens, Animal Control Officer Michael Kairevich shared their concern, saying the coyotes are becoming more brazen.He told The Daily Item about an encounter he had with a coyote in August.”I was checking a baited trap I had set for raccoons that were getting into a house in Little Nahant and there was a very large coyote there. He arched his back and showed me his teeth. I got the hell out of there,” Kairevich said.Resident Paul Caira said shortly after the meeting that the coyotes should be removed.”I’m not an advocate of killing the animals,” Caira said, “but I want the state to find a way to legally trap them, remove them and relocate them elsewhere in the state.”Caira is concerned there is not a sufficient food supply in town for the animals and that if the coyotes are starving, they will view people as a food source.”Their food supply is dwindling in town,” Caira said. “Our cat was killed by a coyote and these animals are eating domestic pets. I don’t know what these animals will do if they are starving. Will they migrate across the Causeway back to Lynn or will they try to feed on people if they are starving?”