Project Coyote is a California-based wildlife protectionist association dedicated to changing the way coyotes and other large predators are perceived and treated across the country. Founded in 2009,¹ Project Coyote aims for a policy shift from trapping and killing coyotes and other large predators that encroach on urban areas or ranches, to a “coexistence” through which people and coyotes occupy the same areas. ² Project Coyote is funded by the Earth Island Institute and has opposed the use of zero carbon nuclear energy. ^{3 4}

The organization sometimes applies anthropomorphic language to the animals that resembles left-progressive rhetoric about certain groups of people; for example: “Today, native carnivores continue to be marginalized, displaced and persecuted in their homeland.” ⁵

People

Founder and executive director Camilla Fox sits on the leadership council of Rewilding Earth, an environmentalist organization seeking to eradicate the killing of large predators to re-designate already-developed areas as protected to reintroduce those predators and other wildlife and plant species. ⁶  She previously worked with the Animal Protection Institute, Rainforest Action Network, and Fur-Bearer Defenders, as well as being previously appointed a member of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture’s National Wildlife Services Advisory Committee. ⁷ In this last capacity she opposed a 1999 measure to request increased funding to wildlife services. ⁸

In 2000, on the same committee, she put forth a measure to require that Wildlife Services animal traps be checked every 24 hours. This last measure was rejected that year as unfeasible due to the required increase in manpower. ⁹

Fox has written of the killing of large predators in moral language reminiscent of animal liberation activists. In an article entitled “The Ethics of Killing Large Carnivores,” coauthored with Chris Genovali, Fox wrote:

Large carnivores pose a threat not so much to human “life and property,” but rather to human self-conceptualization. They challenge our imagined “rightful place” in the world, primarily our hegemony over nature and its non-human inhabitants.” ¹⁰

Randi Feilich, the Southern California Representative for Project Coyote and frequent spokeswoman for the group, is a former executive vice president and partner for the advertising firm Van Wagner Communications and real estate agent. ¹¹ Along with Fox, Feilich led the 2011 Change.org campaign to ban using city funds to trap coyotes in her hometown of Calabasas, California. ¹²

Policy

Project Coyote helped craft a pamphlet of suggestions, later published by the Calabasas Public Works Department, for residents to deal with coyote/human interactions called the Coyote Management Plan. ¹³ This Plan is very similar in language and format to the Coyote Coexistence Plan Project Coyote produced for Superior, Colorado. ¹⁴

Project Coyote’s recommended approach is for residents to condition the animals’ response through a sustained campaign of negative interactions, called “hazing.” From the Plan:

Basic hazing consists of standing your ground, never ignoring or turning your back to a coyote, yelling and making unpleasant and frightening noises until the animals choose to leave. More aggressive hazing consists of approaching an animal quickly and aggressively throwing projectiles, spraying with a hose or water gun, or creating fear of contact so the animal leaves the situation…Hazing must continue once it begins until the animal leaves, otherwise, the coyote will learn to “wait ”until the person gives up. Not following through with hazing will create an animal more resistant to hazing instead of reinforcing the image that “people are scary.” ¹⁵

In a series of interviews posted on Project Coyote’s website, Randi Feilich gave similar advice when asked what residents should do in the face of increasing coyote encroachment, suggesting that residents carry a golf club for defense when out walking. She also suggested installing a motion-activated “scarecrow” that shoots a stream of water to scare the animals, but later in the same interview stated that coyotes are attracted to water sources. ¹⁶

In 2020, Project Coyote mounted a failed campaign to end Mendocino County’s contract with USDA Wildlife Services, known as the Integrated Wildlife Management Program, which handles the hunting and killing of excess wildlife in that region. The group provided talking points and instructions on making tele-comments with the aim of attending a virtual meeting on July 14, 2020. ¹⁷

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

In May of 2021, Project Coyote was one of 715 groups and businesses listed as a co-signer on a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate that referred to nuclear energy as a “dirty” form of energy production and a “significant” source of pollution. The letter asked federal lawmakers to reduce carbon emissions by creating a “renewable electricity standard” that promoted production of weather dependent power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, but did not promote low carbon natural gas and zero carbon nuclear energy. ¹⁸

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ¹⁹ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ²⁰

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1. Hall, Caleigh. “Project Coyote’s Ten-Year Anniversary Benefit and Auction.” Project Coyote Website. April 23, 2019. Accessed July 20, 2020. https://www.projectcoyote.org/countdown-project-coyotes-10-year-anniversary-benefit-and-auction/
2. Project Coyote. “About.” Project Coyote Website. Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/about/
3. Project Coyote. “Donate.” Project Coyote Website. Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/donate/
4. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
5. Project Coyote. “About.” Project Coyote Website. Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/about/
6. Rewilding Earth. “What is Rewilding?” Rewilding Earth Website. Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. https://rewilding.org/what-is-rewilding/ 
7. Project Coyote. “Camilla H. Fox.” Project Coyote Website. Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/about/camilla-fox/
8. USDA. “National Wildlife Services Advisory Committee.” USDA.gov Website.  August 25, 1999. Accessed July 20, 2020.  https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwsac/1996%20-%202003%20NWSAC%20Minutes/1999_nwsac_minutes.pdf
9. USDA. “National Wildlife Services Advisory Committee.” USDA.gov Website. June 15, 2000. Accessed July 20, 2020.   https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwsac/1996%20-%202003%20NWSAC%20Minutes/2000_nwsac_minutes.pdf
10. Genovali, Chris, Fox, Camilla. “The Ethics of Killing Large Carnivores.” Project Coyote Website. June 11, 2010. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/project/the-ethics-of-killing-large-carnivores/
11. Linkedin. “Randy Feilich.” Linkedin Webstie. Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/randi-feilich-mba-a9ba72115
12. Project Coyote. “Victory! Calabasas, CA Votes to End Coyote Trapping.” Project Coyote Website. October 13, 2011. Accessed July 20, 2020. https://www.projectcoyote.org/victory-calabasas-ca-votes-to-end-coyote-trapping/ 
13. City of Calabasas. “Coyote Management Plan.” Project Coyote Website. Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/CalabasasMgmtPlan.pdf
14. Project Coyote. “Coyote Coexistence Plan.” Project Coyote Website. Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Coyote-Coexistence-Plan.Superior.12-June-2014.pdf
15. City of Calabasas. “Coyote Management Plan.” Project Coyote Website. Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/CalabasasMgmtPlan.pdf
16. Project Coyote. “Fox 11 KTTV Los Angeles Interviews Randi Feilich of Project Coyote.” Undated. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/mediaroom/videos/fox-11-kttv-los-angeles-interviews-randi-feilich-project-coyote/
17. Project Coyote Website. July 10, 2020. Accessed July 20, 2020. http://www.projectcoyote.org/july-14th-mtg-urge-mendocino-county-bos-to-end-contract-with-usda-wildlife-services/
18. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
19. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
20. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/