Mission Hills officials say they plan to re-evaluate how to handle an increase in coyote activity after two dogs were injured this month after being caught in traps placed for coyotes at a city park.
City officials say a city staff member is licensed to trap through a nuisance wildlife control permit, and signage and mailers went out as a warning the week before the “non-lethal” traps were set in an “unmaintained” corner of the park.
But the move sparked criticism after a widely circulated post on neighborhood messaging app Nextdoor said two dogs had been caught in the traps and blasted the city for its “inhumane efforts” at trying to control wildlife.
With a packed crowd of residents calling for answers at Monday’s city council meeting, Mayor David Dickey said the city will take a step back and evaluate what it should do next.
Two dogs were caught in the traps
- “Two off-leash dogs were caught in non-lethal traps at Peetwood Park” at around 5:20 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 6, according to a Mission Hills statement last week.
- The city had placed five signs warning of “Nuisance Animal Trapping in Progress” seven days before the traps went up, according to the statement.
- Nearby residents were notified about the traps and also cameras were monitoring the area, according to the statement.
- The injured dogs’ current status is unclear, though the Nextdoor post — written by someone who said they were a friend of the dogs’ owner — said they had suffered “broken teeth,” were undergoing “extensive leg surgery” and “may not survive” because they were older dogs.
All traps have been removed
- City Administrator Jennifer Lee told the Post via email that four traps were placed in a small area in the northeast corner of Peetwood Park and have now all been removed.
- Lee said that portion of the park is accessible from one direction “unless you walk down into the creek and up a bank.”
- The park runs along Indian Lane near W. 65th Terrace, about a block away from Mission Road — Mission Hills’ western city limits next to Prairie Village.
- At Monday’s meeting, Dickey apologized to the Prairie Village resident whose dogs were caught in the trap.
Public calls for humane options and better communication
- Some residents, including Kim Cline, asked about whether there are more humane traps the city can deploy because she doesn’t want her “dog in a steel trap.”
- Others raised concerns about the possibility of a child potentially getting caught in a trap.
- Andy Wolf said he was concerned about the city’s communication about the traps, noting that he found out about the traps on Facebook and Nextdoor rather than from city itself.
- “I think if you want public safety you need to let the public know what you’re doing in the city,” Wolf said.
Dickey says city will ‘step back, evaluate’
- Dickey told the handful of people who packed the small council chambers on Monday that the city will find a way forward to address the city’s coyote issue.
- The city has been working to address concerns about coyotes for more than a year, he said, after one resident’s dog was attacked and killed in their fenced-in backyard.
- Dickey said it makes him sad when any person or pet is injured in Mission Hills as public safety of all kinds is his top priority.
- “We’ll find a way forward and I don’t know what that looks like,” Dickey said. “Council is not going to make that decision, we’ll ask the crime and safety committee to take a look at this again and what happened last week — but I don’t think the answer is doing nothing.”
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