Vancouverites are being reminded to be careful about their trash after a conservation officer was forced to shoot and kill a mangy coyote near a city park.

The B.C. Conservation Service was alerted about the animal Tuesday after it settled in some bushes near Gaston Park, close to a children’s playground.

While regular wildlife shies away from humans, the animal stayed in the area for more than an hour-and-a-half while officers made an assessment, and it was seen trying to eat a discarded orange peel.

Sgt. Todd Hunter said he was forced to shoot and kill the animal, which he considered mangy and ill.

“It had a problem with its eye. It had limited vision. It was scratching itself repeatedly,” he said, noting that it was fairly thin.

Hunter says overflowing and unsecured garbage bins in the city are attractants for the scavengers because the trash draws in rats, mice and other rodents.

“So what follows are those predators,” Sgt. Hunter said. “Their primary food source is squirrels and rats.”

While coyotes have been residing in Vancouver for three decades, the conservation service says the problem has become much worse.

Hunter says he’s received reports that people are feeding the coyotes, and he believes they’re becoming habituated to people.

He’s urging people to stay away from the wildlife, and also to secure their garbage at all times.

“They’re not dogs, they’re wildlife,” he said.