To the editor:<\/p>\n
No one likes to see a coyote, bobcat, great horned owl or other local predator kill a ground bird, sea turtle hatchling or house cat that has been left out of doors \u2014 but it happens and its part of the natural process. It\u2019s true coyotes have not been present on Sanibel for as long as other predators, but they are now ubiquitous in Florida and arrived naturally \u2014 unlike the burgeoning population of Burmese pythons that have killed off most mammals in the Everglades after being released by exotic pet enthusiasts.<\/p>\n
In a letter to the editor published in the June 10, 2026, issue of the Island Reporter, Bob Morton suggests that once the injured coyote pup being treated by the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) is fully recovered from its injuries, rather than releasing it into the wild, we should vilify it and put it in a cage for life as an example of what we do to \u201csmart, cunning, tricky\u201d predators who kill our preferred species.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, before Hurricane Ian, when marsh rabbits were rampant on Sanibel and devouring ornamental landscape plants, people were asking \u201cwhere are the coyotes when we need them?\u201d The same is true of rats and more recently green iguanas, two other \u201cnuisance\u201d species. Predators keep nature in balance. While it\u2019s true they sometimes prey on iconic species like sea turtles or their eggs, perhaps those species can be better protected.<\/p>\n
All predators are hard wired by nature to do what they do. They are not motivated by meanness, just a need for food. Let\u2019s not play God and decide which local species are entitled to exist and which are not based on our personal preferences.<\/p>\n
Larry Schopp<\/p>\n
Sanibel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: No one likes to see a coyote, bobcat, great horned owl or other local predator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-308634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}