Sabha, Tamer
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yosufi
Tuesday, July 14, 2026 1 1:24 AM
Sabha, Tamer
Written Statement for the Record — Human-Coyote Conflicts Coyote-Written-Statement-vZ.pdf
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Ptesae see attached my written statement for tomorrow's Pasadean Public safety Commottee 7/15/26 Thankyou
YosufiTyebkhan
1 Written Statement for the Record — Human-Coyote Conflicts Pasadena Public Safety Committee • Item #2 (Information Only) • Meeting of July 15, 2026 To: Pasadena Public Safety Committee
From: Yosufi Tyebkhan, resident, Pasadena
Re: Item #2 — Update on Human-Coyote Conflicts (July 15, 2026) Members of the Committee,
My family has lived at for twenty years. For our first ten years here, coyote sightings were rare. Then, over roughly the last eighteen months, that changed completely — today we encounter coyotes almost nightly. A pair, a male and a female, appears almost daily; from their pattern, I believe their den is within a couple of houses of mine.They trot down the middle of our street in plain view, unbothered by people and unafraid even of barking dogs.
What this has done is change the way we live. Neighbors now carry sticks and whistles simply to walk down the block, and some have stopped walking in the neighborhood altogether. Parents will not let their children play in their own front yards or backyards. People are afraid to let their dogs out alone. One neighbor's backyard furniture has been chewed up. This is not a minor inconvenience or a lifestyle preference. It is fear — daily, well-founded fear — on a residential street where families have lived for over a hundred years, and it is getting worse, not better.
Let me state my position plainly, and I want it on the record. I reject the premise that residents must simply adapt and live in fear of habituated predators in their own neighborhood. Coexistence cannot mean that families surrender their backyards and their evening walks while the animals lose all fear of us. Human safety comes first. On my street, that balance is already gone, and I am not willing to accept fear as the new normal.
Let me put the inconsistency plainly. If a bear or a mountain lion were behaving this way on our block, the state would respond and the animal would be removed. Because it is a coyote,the answer residents are given is to make ourselves large, bang pots, and haze a predator ourselves. If a person were roaming our street, acting aggressively toward residents and destroying property, the police would act swiftly and without hesitation. We are describing exactly that kind of threat — and getting a pamphlet in return. I do not understand why there is no action here.
I have read the staff report for this item, and I want to be direct about the gap between it and what we are living. The report tells you that concerns dropped 76% in early 2026 and that things are improving. That is not our reality. On our block the problem has gotten dramatically worse, not better. I cannot tell you why the citywide number fell, and I am not going to speculate. I can only tell you what we see:over the last eighteen months, coyotes on our block have gone from a rare sight to an almost daily presence. Whatever the aggregate data shows, it does not describe Las Lunas — and a 76% drop should not be read as reassurance while neighborhoods like ours are going the other way.
Our street is close to the Caltech and San Pasqual area that the report itself names as a hotspot — roughly a mile away. Las Lunas between Alien and Hill is not a separate problem — it is that hotspot spreading outward into blocks like ours. Yet our block does not appear to be monitored, and the pending field study does not appear to include it.
The report also credits the city's public outreach — sidewalk talks, a social-media campaign, flyers, and a toolkit — as progress. I want to note plainly that in twenty years on this street, in an area the report itself identifies as affected, I have not encountered any of it. If the outreach the city is counting as a success is not reaching residents in the very neighborhoods living the problem, then it is not working, and it should not be presented to this Committee as an accomplishment.
The city's own framework classifies coyotes that have lost their fear of humans and dogs as habituated — a higher threat level that calls for a stronger response than public education. What we are describing every night — animals unafraid of people and barking dogs, denning among our homes, and damaging property — is habituated, aggressive behavior by the plan's own definitions. It should be treated that way, not logged as a routine sighting.
I anticipate the city's stock answer: remove these coyotes and others will move in. If that is true, it is an argument for doing more, not less. It means removing the specific animals and aggressively removing what draws them here — the feeding and the trash the report itself names as the primary causes. Remove the pair and ignore the attractants, and yes, it repeats. That is not a reason to do nothing; it is the reason to do both, and to keep doing it. An approach built on education and hazing alone is not keeping my neighborhood safe.
I would also note that state law already gives residents whose property is being damaged the right to have the specific animal taken. I would far rather the city take responsibility for a neighborhood problem than leave residents to hire trappers block by block — but continued inaction pushes us toward exactly that.
Specifically, I am calling on the Committee to direct staff to:
1. Track and remove the specific pair of habituated coyotes denning on Las Lunas between Alien and Hill, in coordination with Pasadena Humane and California Fish & Wildlife. This pair is where you can act immediately — but this is not only about two animals. The coyote presence across our area has grown and habituated, and education and hazing are not containing it. What our neighborhood needs is a shift toward active removal of habituated coyotes, beginning on Las Lunas.
2. Pair any removal with sustained, aggressive enforcement of the feeding and trash ordinances on these blocks — including citations — so the attractants that draw coyotes here are removed and the problem does not simply refill.
3. Add our block to the city's monitored hotspots and conduct an on-site field assessment here before the pending study is finalized.
4. Report back to affected residents with a concrete timeline and a named point of contact — not another year of "implementation continues."
I also want the record to reflect that the city is now aware of these conditions. Residents have described, in detail, habituated coyotes active on our block and real worry about our children's safety. I sincerely hope it does not take an injury to prompt action. My ask is simply that the Committee recognize the risk has been identified in advance and act while there is still time to prevent harm.
We are not asking to coexist with animals that no longer fear us. I am demanding that the city reclaim our streets before a child is hurt. I expect this Committee to direct action, and I will keep raising this until it does.
Respectfully,
Yosufi Tyebkhan