Footprints in mud leave a reminder of the coyote danger at the Pierce College farm. The hunt is on for an elusive band of coyotes that has taken over the Pierce College farm, killing dozens of stray cats and threatening livestock. They're all over campus going through the trash cans. Administrators are worried about the students, especially at night, because of the possibility of rabies or somebody getting bit.
Coyotes are like serial killers.
It's not if they'll take any livestock, it's just when. Lander said the Warner Ridge housing project at Oxnard Street and De Soto Avenue was entirely fenced after the land was graded, locking in an unknown number of coyotes that occasionally come down from the Santa Monica Mountains but rarely stay very long. The coyotes often use storm channels to travel from place to place looking for food. A dirt mound now blocks the storm drain out of Pierce College so the coyotes have made a home on campus, where they're protected from being hunted by city laws. The Pierce coyotes are the latest example of suburbia's battle with nature, a fight picked up by those who feel threatened by the carnivorous canines, and groups that want to preserve wildlife.