By Jeff Gammage
Inquirer Staff Writer
Deer graze in Valley Forge Park…
For months they’ve run on the periphery of the debate over the plan to shoot deer at Valley Forge national park: Coyotes.
A small number have taken residence inside the park, among the “urban coyotes” that dwell in places from New York to Chicago to Beverly Hills, Calif.
Now, animal-rights advocates are arguing that the number of coyotes in Valley Forge should be encouraged to grow, as a way to provide a predatory check on the deer and eliminate any cause for gunfire.
“It would serve as a natural form of population control,” said Matthew McLaughlin, director of the Pennsylvania chapter of Friends of Animals.