Urban coyotes are increasingly common across North American cities — welfare-conscious coexistence strategies that reduce conflict and suffering.
Urban coyote welfare is shaped primarily by the management responses they receive from humans. Coyotes who are never fed, who are hazed when they approach too closely, and who live in communities that do not persecute them can coexist with humans at low conflict levels and good individual welfare. Coyotes who are fed — whether deliberately or through unsecured garbage and pet food — habituate progressively, lose fear, and eventually trigger management responses including trapping and lethal control that cause significant individual animal suffering. Coexistence that protects both human safety and coyote welfare requires community education and behavior change, not reactive lethal management.