FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Anja Heister, anja@idausa.org, (406) 544-5727

Seal Beach Sending Coyotes to the Gas Chamber

Protest planned for Sunday, October 5

Seal Beach, Calif. (October 3, 2014) – Coyotes in Seal Beach, California are being gassed to death – a horribly cruel practice that has been outlawed for dogs and cats in 19 states, including California, but apparently perfectly acceptable for wildlife, like coyotes. As of Monday, September 29, and lasting for a period of two weeks, according to the hired “pest” control company “Critter Busters,” the coyotes will be caught in live traps and then transferred into mobile gas chambers with carbon dioxide (CO2).

Inside the gas chamber, the trapped and terrified coyotes will likely struggle for several minutes for air or begin convulsing before finally losing consciousness.

This overreaction by city council comes in the wake of several dogs that have been killed recently by coyotes. However, this misguided plan to brutally gas coyotes doesn’t address the real reasons why coyotes are coming into contact with people and companion animals.

“Losing an animal companion, whether to a disease, a car accident, or to coyotes, is always a tragedy” said Anja Heister, director of the Wild and Free – Habitats Campaign for In Defense of Animals. “But the city council’s eye for an eye coyote killing program is an ill-conceived overreaction. Their plan fails to take into account reckless human behavior, including people leaving food sources outside – and even worse – residents apparently actually feeding the coyotes. Eliminate the reasons the coyotes are coming into town and the coyotes won’t be an issue.”

There is a demonstration organized by the group, Empty Cages Los Angeles, to protest the horrific treatment of coyotes in Seal Beach, and to demand a humane, nonlethal long-term plan for co-existence.

What: Seal Beach Coyote Killing Protest
When: Sunday, October 5, 2014, noon to 2 p.m.
Where: Seal Beach Pier, 1190 Pacific Coast Hwy, Seal Beach, CA (meet by the “Slick” the seal statue)

For more information, please visit the demonstration’s Facebook event page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/263266880463701/

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