I was sad to hear of the loss of pets and livestock attributed to the coyotes. (“Coyote reports rise, group aims to educate islanders,” Aug. 26)

However, I thought I should share with folks what we have done on our property on Wax Orchard. We have sheep and chickens and have had a history of losses of chickens from raccoons and threats to our sheep from dog packs that occasionally roam around.

We tried everything and finally put in electric wires around our fencing. There are two electric wires, one above the other, at just the right height to be unavoidable to a dog or coyote trying to dig under the fence or jump over it. That works. We also have two electric wires around the chicken yard that can’t be avoided by raccoons trying to climb the fence or go under it.

Branches can fall against the wires, or shrubs can grow up around them, which causes them to short out, so we monitor them daily. I check every day to see that the fences are on and working. It takes just a couple of minutes. We hear the coyotes from our house sometimes, but we don’t worry. There are power outages, but they rarely last long, and we always check to be sure the electric wire is back on. We do have a dog, and she knows enough to leave those wires alone.

— Emma Amiad