by Nick

Officials buy horns to counter coyotes

March 22, 2007 in Uncategorized by Nick

City officials have purchased 1,000 hand-held boat horns to help residents scare off coyotes. Code compliance manager Dirk Voss said this week he bought the horns early last month after residents complained that coyotes were killing their pets.

“The taxpayers don’t want us to say, ‘It’s not our job,’” Voss said this week. “They want us to come up with something.”

The city spent $5,942 for the aerosol-powered devices that emit shrieks that can be heard up to a half-mile away over land, officials said.

The horns may also come in handy for scaring off stray cats and dogs, Voss said.

But some, like retired city code enforcement officer Joe Avelar, said the idea could cause more problems than it solves.

“You’re going to have disturbing-the-peace problems everywhere,” said Avelar, who now chairs the city’s Inter-Neighborhood Council Forum.