When hungry coyotes devoured four chickens in the eclectic neighborhood of Silver Lake in Los Angeles, their owner had to do something quickly. These were not run-of-the-hen-house avians: the four included two celebrity chickens which had just finished a stint with the emmy-nominated show The Other Half, a 2001 counterpart to The View. Hosted by music and game show icon Dick Clark and child actors Mario Lopez and Danny Bonaduce, hens Sophie and Gilda of Silver Lake warily had recently shared the stage with the all-male cast members.



Word of the bloody early morning attack spread quickly in a city known for celebrity, and producers of the Discovery Channel's popular show Animal Planet wanted to help. Animal Planet's Joe Correll researched the problem, and soon flock owner Carl Hunter turned to Roll Guard, Inc. of San Diego for help.

?We were pleased to be of service,? says Bob Owens, founder and president of Roll Guard, which donated and installed his premier product Coyote Roller? to protect the flock of Silver Lake. ?In nearly a decade of operation, we have not lost a single chicken or domestic animal to predators.?

In Los Angeles, as in many areas, coyotes preceded people and are protected under state and municipal regulations. That means residents must come up with a fence solution that will keep their pets safe, while maintaining respect for indigenous predators.

Coyote Roller? is the preferred alternative. There is no unsightly barbed wire or cruel electrification. One case study has shown that not only does the coyote roller keep predators at bay, but at some point, they give up trying.

How Coyote Roller works

Predators clear fences fast enough that most people think the animals accomplish this with a single bound. With fences six feet or higher, the jump actually consists of two phases: first the coyote grabs hold of the fence with his front paws and pulls himself up, while using his back legs to spring off the fence. Since this happens in less than half a second, people often see it as being a continuous motion.

Coyote Roller? interferes with the first part of the jump, making it impossible for the animal to grab the top of the fence. The Coyote Roller is just that, a four-inch roller designed to freely rotate with as little as two ounces of pressure. However it can withstand more than 250 pounds on weight.

The system is designed to be installed by homeowners. The mounting brackets require a screwdriver and a 7/16 inch wrench. If a roller needs to be modified to fit on fencing, a homeowner simply needs to remove the bushings from one end, use a radial power saw (or even a simple hack saw) to cut rollers to the correct, and reinsert the bushings. If a fence is not structurally sound, defective fencing must be repaired or replaced before installing the system.

Best of all, Coyote Roller? not only keeps predators out, it keeps pets in. Coyote Roller? has been on the market since 2001, and more than 18,000 have been sold without a single complaint. Its manufacturer, Roll Guard, offers a five-year warranty against manufacturing defects. It has been written up in technical publications as the best new product in the fencing industry.