York, PA - Last winter, Barbara Sherman noticed she was losing farm cats by the dozens.
The Hopewell Township woman kept the animals on her Plank Road farm to help keep rodents at bay, but as the colder months crept over the county, Sherman noticed several cats were missing, and a couple were injured.
She couldn't figure out what might be causing her cats to disappear.
Until she saw a coyote.
The animal, about the size of a dog, was wandering along the border of her property several weeks ago, she said.
It confirmed the fears she had suspected after several friends and neighbors said they also had spotted the animals at different times.
"I want (the coyotes) dead," Sherman said through tears Thursday. "Anyone who has pets knows how important they are. I can't imagine how they suffered."
Sherman called Officer Shawn Musser with the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Southcentral Regional Office.
"I wasn't surprised when I heard she had coyotes on her property," Musser said.
The animals are in every county throughout Pennsylvania, he said.
Because the coyotes are a nuisance to Sherman, Musser said he allowed a nuisance wildlife trapper to trap for the animals, but it hasn't been successful.
The trapper, Wayne Gemmill, of Stewartstown, said he set the traps on June 9, and removed them nine days later. "Nothing bothered them," he said. "That tells me the coyote hasn't been in that area."
