Cowardly family pets, left unattended, are easy prey for vicious coyotes. “The combination of a backyard with a birdfeeder and a dog is a death sentence,” adds Jay Stewart, of the coyote-shootin’ company Animal Damage Control and Wildlife Management Services, in this month’s Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle . Such fearmongering is fueling increased coyote slayings and criticism from animal rights advocates. In Greenwood Village, south of Denver, police and Stewart have killed six coyotes so far this year, reports The Denver Post, which writes that authorities received “multiple” reports of coyotes chasing residents in the Monaco Park area, building on a report of an attack on a child earlier this year. Animal activists, however, say that hysteria is trumping better, common-sense approaches, such as simply trying to scare the coyotes away. WildEarth Guardians’ cause is represented in its growing efforts to save “Limpy,” the lame coyote on Greenwood Village’s coyote hit list (via www.LetLimpyLive.org).