LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Las Vegas homeowners were discouraged when they saw the neighborhood cat, Princess, lying dead on their sidewalk, and now they are looking more into an abandoned house that wildlife are calling home.
Jeanne David, a Las Vegas resident, said she did not expect to take care of the neighborhood’s cats when she bought her home in 2014.
“We all take care of them,” she said. “But there are ducks in the park, there’s birds—everybody goes out there and the kids love it.”
Recently neighbors in a west valley community said cats have been attacked by coyotes walking the Las Vegas neighborhood streets, and David said she caught the pack on camera.
“We saw on the video cameras that night that three coyotes were charging towards the cat,” David said. “Then the next night, we [saw] more coyotes, they’re now coming in packs and what we found is that they’re coming from that house.”
David pointed to a home that neighbors say has sat vacant and abandoned for nearly a decade and has become home for wildlife.
“We don’t know if there’s a den in the house or outside the house,” she said. “We have the quietest place in Las Vegas and all of a sudden we’re being traumatized by you know, all of our feral cats being in danger,” she said.
David and residents told 8 News Now they notified Las Vegas Animal Protection Services which referred the problem to the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
“The coyotes should be able to live in your neighborhood and don’t worry about them,” NDOW said. “Well, I have a dead cat in my yard, what do you want to do about that?” David replied.
An NDOW representative allegedly advised David not to leave food out to prevent further coyote attacks, but she said the advice wasn’t addressing the root problem—the abandoned house.
‘Problem in the backyard’
There are piles of palm fronds lying above standing water in the abandoned home’s pool and many neighbors are concerned for their health.
“When spring came around, we noticed the other problems with the house in the way of the insects,” Jami Whitehead, a Las Vegas resident, said. “You can imagine that there’s a substantial odor that is associated with that as well.”
Whitehead shares a wall with the abandoned house and explains that she is worried about the health of her dogs and family who try to enjoy their backyard. Corpse flies, wasps, mosquitoes and even squatters have been spotted in the abandoned home, according to residents.
“There were squatters in there,” Whitehead said. “But they quickly moved on.”
Whitehead recalls calling Las Vegas City Councilwoman Victoria Seaman’s office to resolve the issue, but nothing changed.
“They said they couldn’t detect a problem in the backyard,” she said. “They were there for all of 30 seconds.”
Whitehead then reached out to the owner of the property which according to her is a trust, but ignored her calls.
“I really don’t know what to do at this point,” Whitehead said.
The Nevada Department of Wildlife has not yet responded to 8 News Now regarding this story. Southern Nevada Health District Mosquito Surveillance has been contacted by 8 News Now for issues of standing water and reports of mosquitoes.
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