Coyotes are the most successful urban wildlife adapters in North America, thriving in cities and suburbs, but face intensive lethal control that is both ineffective and raises serious welfare concerns.
Coyotes killed in lethal control programs suffer via methods including shooting, trapping with conibear and leg-hold traps, and cyanide poisoning. Trap injuries before death cause prolonged suffering. Non-target animals including dogs, cats, and protected species are regularly caught in traps. Population-level lethal control is scientifically shown to be ineffective because killing breeding adults triggers compensatory reproduction with larger litters. Non-lethal coexistence tools including hazing, denning season exclusion, and education programs are more effective at reducing human-coyote conflict long-term. Individual coyotes that become food-conditioned through human feeding must be euthanized as habituation cannot be reversed safely. Their ecological role as mesopredators regulating rodents and rabbits provides significant ecosystem services.