Eluding Wile E. Coyote was always easy for the Road Runner. After all, Wile usually did himself in.

In West Virginia, sheep, goats and other farm animals aren’t so lucky. Real coyotes are agile, cunning and fast – with the ability to run up to 40 miles per hour and jump 8-foot fences.

“That term, wily coyote, it’s very descriptive. They are wily. You don’t see them very often, and they’re very adaptable,” said Ed Smolder, a West Virginia University extension agent.

Products such as traps and poison are used in a state-funded program overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services office in Elkins that targets the most aggressive coyotes.

Two chemical controls are collars filled with toxic sodium fluoroacetate that are placed around the throats of livestock – where coyotes generally strike – and bait laced with sodium cyanide.

Officials also stress common sense approaches such as keeping livestock close to the house or barn, building bigger and stronger fences, and using guard dogs or donkeys, which in some cases instinctively chase canines.

Hunters are encouraged to shoot coyotes, either for sport or pelts that are worth about $30 to $40 each. There is no closed season for coyotes, and the Legislature voted to allow night hunting of the creatures a couple of years ago.