A vote by the Torrance City Council to approve a coyote management program without ongoing trapping services was being cheered by an animal rights group Wednesday.
“After years of a cruel and ineffective trapping program in Torrance, a much more enlightened and fact-focused city council voted to stop the expensive program,” PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange said. “Dozens of America’s Song Dogs endured terrifying snaring only to be thrown into a chamber and gassed to death by a trapper who flouted the law.”
Asked if the city had indeed banned lethal coyote trapping, Corbin Carson, communications manager in the city manager’s office, said it had not.
“No, the Torrance City Council did not ban lethal coyote trapping,” Carson said in an email to City News Service.
Instead, the council “approved the Coyote Management Program without ongoing trapping services, while retaining the ability to use trapping on an as-needed basis when warranted.”
According to Lange, killing coyotes is ineffective because others will move in to areas made vacant “unless discouraged to do so through humane, effective approaches” like removing things that attract the animals, such as trash and cats allowed to roam outdoors.
Many residents have also found hazing to be effective, according to Lange.
“Torrance’s war on wildlife has finally ended,” she stated.