The city and county overblown response to reported sightings of coyotes is amazing. There’s a lot of hyped scare stuff out there. At least the site now adds this language: “To date there have been no reports in Travis County of coyotes attacking humans.” People who keep poultry and don’t coop it at night and people who leave cats and small dogs out overnight shouldn’t, coyotes or not. Coyotes take the easy food and there’s plenty of it around. I bet that what people are seeing for the most part are gray foxes, but there are people who go crazy when they see them, also; and there are plenty to see within a mile or so of the Capitol if you’re looking in the right places at the right times. I’ve spent time where there really are lots of coyotes, and they make themselves heard. The local reports have mentioned nothing about hearing them at night. An earlier press release sounded the alarm. It hasn’t been clear from the later press release exactly what steps are contemplated, but the sort of measures that rangemen have used in the past have turned out, where effective, to be dangerous and certainly are not suitable for urban areas. So the county has entered into a contract to spend at least $30,000 in hard-earned money from the taxpayers on “culling,” meaning trapping and killing. It says so right here on page 27 of the commissioners’ court minutes for November 9. A Startlegram columnist makes fun of all this: “After the wet summer, coyotes are on the prowl all over Texas. In Austin, Travis County commissioners have hired biologists to manage the population in northwest Austin, where coyotes have been peering into windows and stalking homeowners carrying groceries.” The property appraisals will be mailed out soon; setting taxation rates will follow. And this is an example of how our money is spent.