NAHANT — Residents are dissatisfied with Town Administrator Antonio Barletta’s coyote attack update at the Wednesday Board of Selectmen meeting.
In the face of residents’ fear and frustration over repeated coyote sightings and attacks across the island, Barletta laid out recent efforts to mitigate the danger, but had no solution to get rid of the animals. Until the town arrives at a final plan, it is creating preventative and responsive measures.
In a consultation with Dave Wattles of MassWildlife, the town has set up a page on the municipal website dedicated to coyote information. The page contains resources, including a map of known coyote hot spots and a link to a video meeting with Wattles about “how to safely co-exist with [coyotes], their behavior, what to do if you encounter one, effective ways to prevent conflict and more.”
Also on the page is the Town’s Coyote Response Plan, which details how people should act during different coyote encounters and how local authorities will react to each encounter. Barletta and Selectmen Gene Carthy and Joshua Antrim emphasized the importance of reporting aggressive coyote encounters as soon as they occur so police can respond more effectively.
When the board opened up for public discussion, constituents expressed their dissatisfaction about the matter. Scott Holmes said he is “feeling really outnumbered” against the coyotes. He added that his two young nephews are afraid to visit him over the attacks. “I feel like I have to make a fortress … it’s just weird, it’s really really weird.”
Linda Tafani agreed, saying, “I don’t feel safe here anymore … people don’t want to walk down the street.” She said she was frustrated that the police or animal control officers were not taking, or killing, more coyotes. “Are we going to wait until [coyotes] go after a child?”
Barletta stated that law enforcement will only consider killing a “problem animal” if it is safe to discharge a weapon. This means that it must be daytime and the animal must be away from people and inhabited buildings, conditions that Barletta called very rare. “I’m not going to put people at risk to take a coyote.”
Barletta added that he will be meeting with Sen. Brendan Crighton and Rep. Pete Capano to discuss legislation that could ease the problem in Nahant, but not to expect anything immediate. “[The coyotes] are here to stay,” said Antrim.
“It’s a tough position to say, ‘I can’t solve this for you,’” said Barletta. “I know it’s common nowadays to want quick solutions and quick answers but this is not a simple problem.”
Emma Fringuelli can be reached at [email protected].
