Coyotes on Centre Street?

Walking back from Newton Centre's Panera (their "Wednesdays in February" promotion -- free coffee from 7-9 AM -- a good excuse for a 4 mile walk), Marash Girl encountered the above sign posted on the telephone post at the corner of Centre Street and Clinton Place, a quarter of a mile from the shops in Newton Centre, in a thickly settled, heavily trafficked area of Newton.  The sign read, "Predators are killing family pets -- Coyotes and foxes are preying on cats and small dogs.  Many cats are missing or dead.  Please keep your cats and dogs in, except when escorting dogs."  Really can't imagine a cat that wouldn't climb a tree rather than allow itself to be caught by a coyote, and there is a leash law in Newton forbidding dogs off leash except in off-leash doggie parks.  So what gives?  Is this just another effort to scare Newton residents into obeying the law? (And Marash Girl is not talking about the law of nature here . . .)
Dead End -- was that a warning? (see Marash Girl's blog, The Dead Man's Float) -- that was the second sign at the corner of Centre Street and Clinton Place; being ever curious, Marash Girl decided to follow the street to its "Dead End" to see what was dead about it.  Following Clinton Place westward one block, Marash Girl turned North where Clinton Place became a dirt road traversing back yards for the equivalent of two blocks.  And there it was.  Across Cotton Street, a wall separating Cabot Woods from the rest of the civilized world, a wall behind which, no doubt, coyotes and foxes could live in peace.