Wednesday, June 3, 2009

hey there jerry (or jay) merritt

first, the only reason that i am using mr. merritt's name is that he made a point of spelling it for the woman who told me this story.

e. was running this morning in the vicinity if red cliffs when she saw dogs chasing a coyote. she asked a man who was in the area if they were his dogs (2 black dogs) and, if so, could he please get it under control.

the guy went off about how it is no one's business what his dog does (beg to differ- we all own this land after all) and how she should really thank him because if dogs would catch & kill coyotes people wouldn't have to worry about being bitten or about their dogs getting bitten (paraphrasing, but this was the gist of the conversation).

e. said she would talk to ridge to rivers about the situation & that's when the guy said go ahead, my name is merritt with 2 t's.

i understand that many of us really hate being told what we can do. i know a lot of people who grew up on farms & ranches consider coyotes vermin and often shoot them on sight. but we don't live in the country, the coyotes aren't killing lambs & chickens and this is public land, owned by the taxpayers. we live in a city, sharing space with our neighbors and none of us can just do what we please. there are people who get a kick out of seeing coyotes and fox in the foothills.

while mr. merritt seems to be pretty proud of his actions most other dog owners absolutely do not condone this type of behavior.

in fact, e. ran into 2 women with a golden shortly after this happened who told her that they leashed up as soon as they heard the coyote. thanks ladies.

will post photos from today & the with/without counts later-

1 comment:

Ladybug said...

Wondered if he is related to Merritt's Country Cafe?!