Citified Coyotes

by John Comer

Coyote. Part of the romantic image of the American West, and a favorite decorator item in homes done Southwestern style.

Phoenix Coyotes. Create excitement on the ice with a hockey puck.

Wily Coyote. In children’s cartoons, always a loser to Roadrunner, who is nothing but a birdbrain, but outsmarts Wily every time.

Urban coyote. No idealism. Not marketable. Not cute. No fun.

Maybe you’ve never contemplated the Christian view toward coyotes. Maybe you didn’t know we even needed one. We do.

Joggers on the ASU West campus, just north of our house, report being snarled at by coyotes. Nearby families report household pets taken by coyotes. Both ASU and Game & Fish Department people are working with the neighborhood association to solve the problem. The initial official position is to leave the coyotes alone. (This was all before the Scottsdale incident.)

Two little children in north Scottsdale were bitten by a coyote a few weeks ago. TV news reporters excitedly gave us helicopter-view coverage of coyote chases through the streets. The two adult animals could not be caught, so they were shot. Their five pups were taken to a shelter to be cared for.

Many people were outraged at the killing. True, the coyotes were innocent victims. The city built out into their territory. But the two little children who were bitten were not exactly hardened criminals, either. Even the mother of one of the bitten children objected to the shooting. Someone built a memorial shrine to the two fallen coyotes. Somebody else had the good sense to dismantle it. Ecology stories often don’t have happy endings with all participants satisfied.

Ecology is a legitimate concern. We need to respect our environment, including wildlife, as part of God’s creation. But we don’t need any holy cows, sacred beetles, or enshrined coyotes.

Our Scriptures encourage us to use intelligence and to keep our priorities straight. There is no shortage of coyotes. Even if there were, the sanctity, dignity, and well-being of human life should take precedence. There is a Christian view toward almost everything, including city coyotes. It’s usually just the common-sense approach.