It is with a heavy heart that I report a baby coyote was killed in a vacant lot in Studio City - in violation of California Laws protecting wildlife from cruelty, capture, and death. Three trap locations were funded by several residents off of a gofundme. The organizer of the gofundme was Lisa Johnson Mandell who stated that "we are collecting to hire a state-lisenced humane wildlife removal company"." What was paid for was an illegal and cruel extermination. The baby coyote was trapped at approx. 11:30 Thursday July 2. And suffered until Saturday morning. The time is known because a neighbor heard his screams. This coyote baby was trapped in a rusty leg hold trap, illegal in California since 1989 due to how inhumane and cruel it is. The trap snaps shut on a leg, crushing bone and ripping skin; the animals die a slow and painful death from shock and exhaustion, struggling to get out. Some try to chew their leg off. The neighbor who heard him scream tried to help him; she gave him water as he laid there all day Friday, while she tried to reach animal services. He had to be euthanized. LAAS is conducting an animal cruelty investigation, Fish and Wildlife is also investigating this crime- and Project Coyote is a well.
It is important that the perpetrators of this crime are held to the highest account so that an example is made: citizens are NEVER to take animal control into their own hands. Wildlife control and conservation is the purview of legally established and publicly supported agencies.
We respectfully request that the District Attorney and Department of Fish and Wildlife prosecute this to the fullest extent to send a CLEAR MESSAGE that ANIMAL CRUELTY will not be tolerated.
We respectfully request a robust prosecution of Lisa Johnson Mandell and the person she contracted to murder our wildlife.
