Laguna Woods is implementing stricter regulations surrounding feeding wildlife — including fines and surveillance cameras — after complaints that coyotes were attacking residents’ pets.
The change prohibits leaving food outdoors. Residents should not directly feed wildlife or leave pet food or water bowls in unattended areas. Additionally, allowing fruit or vegetables to rot on a tree or pile up on the ground will be punishable.
Violating the new rules will result in a fine of $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second offense and $500 for following offenses, within a year, according to city staff.
Surveillance cameras are also expected to be installed and used to identify violations of the wildlife feeding mandate.
Editors’ Note: This dispatch is part of the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service, working with student journalists to cover public policy issues across Orange County. If you would like to submit your own student media project related to Orange County civics or if you have any response to this work, contact admin@voiceofoc.org.
Other cities in Orange County have also increased their regulations regarding feeding wildlife.
In 2022, Fountain Valley banned all contact with wildlife on city property following a coyote attack. In 2023, Placentia banned public feeding of wildlife due to the harmful effects of squirrels.
Laguna Woods Councilmember Shari Horne highlighted that residents’ pets are being attacked by coyotes at a city council meeting earlier this year.
“People need to realize that there is a direct correlation between their putting out food and their neighbors’ pet dying,” Horne said.
Council members voted unanimously to increase fines and install surveillance cameras to ensure residents’ compliance. The changes went into effect in April.
The new rules were first discussed during a council meeting in February, when residents complained about coyotes in the area attacking their pets.
At the Feb. 18 meeting, 19 residents expressed concern over coyote activity within the area, either through spoken or written public comments.
According to the staff report, the city must get approval from any private property owner before any permanent installation of a camera on their property but did not offer details on where the cameras will be installed.
During the council’s initial discussion, residents voiced their concern about the installation of surveillance cameras.
“I urge the city council to remove that highly non-nuanced aspect of this thing,” one Laguna Woods resident said, referring to the surveillance cameras.
After that meeting, the regulations were modified to require that all recorded footage from the cameras must be deleted after one week.
City Manager Christopher Macon began the discussion in February with a presentation highlighting the goal of this change is to minimize the food that coyotes have access to. Restricting residents’ feeding of wildlife will decrease the amount of vermin in the community that coyotes have access to, he said.
Another Laguna Woods resident urged city council members to completely prohibit fruit trees in the city, arguing that that would be the only real solution to the problem.
“If you wanna get serious about reducing the number of pets being killed by coyotes, if you wanna reduce the number of people injured in their struggle to save their pets during coyote attacks, and if you wanna stop the number of coyotes now being shot in the head because nothing else works please prohibit fruit trees in the city,” resident Jay Laessi wrote in an email to city council.
“If the wildlife feeding regulations are about feeding wildlife, then we must recognize that anyone who grows a fruit tree is feeding wildlife,” Lassie continued. “Therefore, those trees should be banned.”
