Coyote Alert! More Cat Attacks

Coyotes have become more brazen in Encino and throughout the Valley since May, and in order to warn locals about them, please post your sightings and warnings here.

If you take photos or video, please post them in the gallery above, where it says Manage your photos & videos.

If you sight a coyote and are concerned, please make a "Wildlife Incident Report" to Los Angeles Animal Services at 888-452-7381.

When making a wildlife incident report, the following information is needed:

• The caller's first and last names, home address, apartment number, ZIP Code, home and cellphone numbers.
• The location of the wild animal (actual address, block and street number or intersection).
• Type of wild animal observed (coyote, opossum, skunk, raccoon, etc.)
• The actual number/amount of wild animals observed in the incident.
• The date and time the wild animal was seen.
• The condition of the animal (sick, injured, orphaned, distressed).
• What was the wild animal doing while you observed it.
• Your pets, type and number or other animals involved/affected.
• Describe what happened during your wildlife encounter.
• Secondhand sightings or forwarded e-mails of other people talking about wildlife sightings are not accepted.

Brenda Barnett, the director of Los Angeles Animal Services, also offered tips to protect pets from coyotes. Clean up fallen fruit, pet food left outside, unsecured trash or compost and other things on or near your property that attract predators, she said.

To keep you and your pets safe, you can also read our article titled, .

Add your latest coyote sighting in the comments section below...

"This time, as they say, it's personal," Henry Eshelman said in an e-mail to Encino Patch. "We live at the corner of Gloria and Moorpark. We lost a beloved cat, Kobe, Friday morning, to what we believe was a coyote. We didn't come firmly to this conclusion till a neighbor mentioned they'd seen coyotes a few times a few hundred yards down the street on Gloria. Then another nearby neighbor at Gloria and Magnolia, who I happened to mention our loss to early Saturday morning, came home to find half a cat in his yard.

So, we think we have a coyote problem around here, and would love to have the Patch's help in bringing it to the attention of the neighborhood and get people to keep pets indoors overnight. I don't know the control protocol for coyotes and we have a trap, but it's too small...We don't want any other neighbors to experience the loss we've felt in losing Kobe."