Bold Coyotes Haunt Richland Streets
Predators are creeping into town limits at night, forcing residents to arm themselves after a man was bitten in the fields.
The story, cleaned up
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The residents of Richland must renew their vigilance in an effort to prevent serious danger from coyotes. The beasts are becoming very bold again within the past few weeks and one of them had the temerity to come right down and look through the fence at the W. S. Davidson home in town Tuesday evening. Mr. Davidson and a party of relatives and friends were on the lawn in front of the house when they saw what at first was supposed to be a dog looking through the fence at them. On investigation, however, they found it to be a coyote but before they could get a gun it had slunk away toward the hill back of town. Coyotes which make their home in the sagebrush near the old pump No. 2 buildings were howling weirdly Tuesday evening and it is up to everyone to see that they have some weapon of defense if they are compelled to be out after dark, even inside the town limits. Frank Parran, who was bitten by a coyote while at work in the harvest fields is still undergoing treatment in Pasco.
“It is up to everyone to see that they have some weapon of defense if they are compelled to be out after dark, even inside the town limits.”
As urban expansion in the Tri-Cities pushes deeper into the shrub-steppe, the ancient conflict between human development and displaced wildlife continues. The fear reported in 1917 echoes the modern unease residents feel when coyotes or other predators roam suburban neighborhoods.
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