That has people concerned. A man was attacked in new jersey by a rabid coyote attack in morris county. Police in Montgomery County recently warned about this coyote hanging out in back yards. Foxes have become common km din delaware county. Its also common to see them in philly. David is the director of conserved wildlife protection. Thank you for being with us, david. Thank you, rosemary. Why very with started to see a surge in wildlife . Its really a combination of two factors. Wi on one hand people are moving to areas that have long been wild areas, just natural areas where wildlife lived and thrived for many years. On the other hand, many of these species are becoming more habituated to sylizaticivilizat its important to remember while some can be a problem, it shouldnt be treated as such. In most cases, theyre trying to avoid us as much as were trying to avoid them. So as we sprawl out, were seeing these animals come a little closer to us. Theyre afraid of us. Typically for foxes and coyotes, they could live right in our neighborhood and we would have no idea most of the time. They really are experts at staying under the radar. Thats why theyre so adaptive and why theyve spread out the country. On the other hand, if you are seeing a coyote or a fox in your yard over a period of time where its hanging out there as opposed to seeing it trotting across the street, a late night drive like that, thats not anything to worry about, but if its hanging out in your yard, it probably sees something that is appealing to it. It might be food left out, garbage, or if you have a pet, its certainly something to be concerned about. I mean, i think people with pets are worried that their animals are going to be scooped up by these predators lurking out there in the woods. Is that a real concern . Certainly if the coyote is hanging around your yard, it may mean its sick or it may mean that its scouting something out in your yard. In those cases it really is a concern, especially with a small dog or cat. One of the best ways to handle that is dont leave your cat outside overnight, and keep your small dog on a leash within sight and, you know, not out on its own if youre in that kind of area. Its certainly much more of a minimal risk in most parts of the region. But if you are in those kind of wild edges and you start to see sightings more and more often, you can certainly take care. You were saying by and large. Really the encounters are friendly, to say the least. No problem there. But if it does become a problem, what do you do . Who do you call . One of the best things to do is to call either animal control or the game commission, depending on the kind of animal and where youre seeing it. At the very least, they can direct you on the right steps to take. In some cases, just simply realizing that my garbage was left out and that has become kind of an attractive nuisance. Taking care of that will resolve the problem. If theyre physically near you and kind of youre trying to walk out to your car and you dont feel safe, typically make a lot of noise and maybe bang a couple loud objects together. That will send them running. If it doesnt, it means almost certainly the animal is sick in some way and thats where animal control would need to take care of it. In some of these benign encounters, im sure you see people who decide maybe its a good idea to feed the wildlife or get closer to them because they want to take that picture or get that video. Those are the kind of things that often lead to those negative encounters or even attacks, and, you know, its real important to remember a few things. Number one, these are wild animals. They may look cute and cuddly like a dog or a bear, it may look like your teddy bear, but theyre wild animals. Theyre not pets, and you want to look but not touch. And a good rule of thumb and this could be whether its in your yard or out in a park or forest somewhere. If youre getting close enough to the animal that theyre reacting to your presence, it probably means youre too close. We should also point out to people that their presence is actually a good thing a lot of times because otherwise we might have more mice in our homes, daire i say it, and mosquitoes out there. Our natural predators, wolves and mountain lions, were ex ten exterminated a long time ago. But they help keep these small animals away, mice in particular. Fox are good at keeping those away. One of the reasons the deer population has exploded is the absence of predators. While coyotes can help a little bit on kind of a young deer, its still not enough deterrent on its own to keep those numbers down. But it certainly helps. When youre looking at small rodents, that can often be passed. Insects are another great example of that. Many people are very afraid of bats. And yet bats are, you know, despite their appearance and their sinister reputation, bats are one of our biggest friends in the wildlife world. For anyone who doesnt enjoy being bit by mosquitoes throughout the summer, a bat can eat 10,000 insects throughout the night. When you think of the number of bats out there, think of the number of insects theyre keeping from biting us or destroying our crops. Millions and millions of dollars they are helping us through insect control. Certainly more common to be bitten by a mosquito than a bat. Similar to others, with a bat occasionally there will be an encounter, they want nothing to do with us when they do get trapped. If theyre in a house somewhere, theyre not trying to attack somebody, theyre just trying to get out. We touched on bats, foxes. What about wild coyotes . They have expanded their population in the last few decades. They were seldom seen in the area but now theyre pretty common. This is the kind of year where turkeys are out looking for their mates, so on the Positive Side you might be lucky enough to see the male turkeys doing their courtship displays which brings to mind those thanksgiving pictures that we celebrated in the past, the big feather spread and the big healthy turkey. The negative is that they can be very aggressive, and as they kind of if theyre walking through your neighborhood, they may kind of give you a start because they all run away immediately. I feel like we hear that more often than not. People describe that the wild turkeys are terrorizing their neighborhood. Is that a fair description. Its fair, but its important to remember that theyre constantly moving. So unlike some other animals that could be problems, theyre not going to camp out over days in your yard. Most likely healthy turkeys will constantly be on the move because theyre seeking mates or seeking food. What other kind of wild animals are we seeing pop up in places they havent been historically . I think one of the most Inspiring Stories have been the raptors in the sky, birds of prey. They were completely east of the mississippi decades ago. And yet we now have falcons at city hall in downtown philly. Theyve done that for a number of years now in a row. They also nest in some of the bridges between pennsylvania and new jersey. When you think about them coming back the way they have, in large part that was ddt, a chemical often used in u. S. Agriculture had wiped out generations of falcons, bald eagles, ospreys and other birds of prey by weakening their eggshells. Once we were able to restrict that kind of use through the dedication of many scientists. You have the peregrines in downtown philly. You have bald eagles. Within an hours drive of philadelphia, you have the top five areas in the northeast. Going down to delaware and susquehanna, you have no sense of wildlife in philadelphia. Its a remarkable story and its only possible because people are helping that along in different ways with volunteers. Really quickly, why is it so important to our ecosystem and our culture . Thats a great question. In one case you have falcons who feed on pigeon and see many of the birds that can cause problems if theres too many of them downtown. In that sense they serve a very vital ecological mess with wildlife. Falcons, bald eagles and ospreys, theyre at the top of the food chain. Without them you see other things expand that are unhealthy. Seeing this wildlife walking on your way to work or to school, a looking up and sig baeeing a ba eagle, that connection with nature is a big part thats missing, and that brings us back to what we were talking about early on. Without that connection to wildlife, that encounter is something to be fearful of. While occasionally that can be the case, more often its something we should treasure and celebrate and make the Younger Generation comfortable with that. David wheeler, thank you for your insight and the work that thank you very much. Appreciate it. Coming up, inappropriate relationships between teachers and students. Next well discuss the surge in cases involving women and how social media could be behind it. Teachers preying on their students for sex. Surprisingly its not new but there is a surge in women teachers having inappropriate relationships with their students. Ten years ago women teachers were accused in only about 40 with Sexual Misconduct with their students. Lately theyre in about 130 of cases. Dr. Welsh is with us today. Thanks for being with us, dr. Welsh. Thank you. In terms of this surge in women predators, do we know why its happening . We dont know exactly why. We do know there is research in the area and were defining Sexual Assault differently and many are reporting being sexually abused by women teachers as many as men teachers. There is more connection on facebook and direct contact with kids that didnt used to be there. It used to be you had contact with a parent outside the classroom, not with just the student. Now theres a lot of friendships developing, so boundaries are being crossed, no question about it. And social media makes it easier to cross those boundaries. I suppose initially maybe the relationship seems to be nurturing or seems to be not predatory. Exactly, particularly with women. You think of men as being aggressive if theyre going to come on to you sexually. With women not necessarily aggressive. But also with women and other young women there is more and young boys are reporting they are either embarrassed or humiliated into engaging in behaviors that are not entirely voluntary, that theyre belittled or they brag about having a relationship with teachers older than you are. Its kind of a brag if you report that your teacher is interested in you, so those things are being talked about more frequently, seen on the news and openly discussed. I think whats really important is how we deal with our children around this issue, how we prepare them. Speaking of which, what kind of responsibility and role do the schools have, what kind of role do parents play in this . I think parents have a huge responsibility in this because i dont think its too young to start educating your children about boundary issues in their own body. We used to say, you want to kiss aunt mary, you want to give grandma a hug. But children have the right to be comfortable in their own body, and i think we instill in that from the age of three on to be able to say, you can hug, you can handshake, or you can high five. You dont necessarily have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. So you use language thats appropriate for kids but you dont need to feel uncomfortable if your extended family member, for instance, isnt getting the kind of response or affection that they look for. Because you want to teach them, whether it be family, friends or strangers, that their bodies are their bodies and they have a right to be comfortable in their body. So all ages, its important to actually respect that, teach kids respect for their bodies. There also seems to be some guidance and instruction thats needed as it relates to the childs interaction with social media. Absolutely. We have to be very aware. First of all, theyre seeing a lot of Television Shows about celebrities, about politicians engaging in Sexual Activity outside of the normal, you know, routine relationship. So that i think theyre exposed to it much more heavily on television. But then i think they have to be monitored in terms of whats going on on facebook. Im all for having access to kids facebook pages or whatever other social media sites theyre using, and that that being part of the communication that goes on in the household. In terms of the school, what kind of role do they play as it relates to accountability and responsibility . I think they have a requirement to discuss it in classrooms, to have courses which talk about protecting yourself, being able to communicate openly if youre uncomfortable about a situation, feeling safe enough to have a person to report to if something made you uncomfortable or someone has made you uncomfortable in a situation, set up safe rooms, peer counseling centers, peer School Counselors which im concerned are not available enough for that kind of discussion, so schools have a big responsibility since theres so much of the childs activity that takes place there. It seems with the schools, youre sort of caught between a rock and a hard place as it relates to social media facebook. As we know, teachers are communicating with their teachers more, its helping them more as it relates to their education, homework, they can talk them through problems at nighttime, whatever, but obviously you dont want it to cross the line or be this vehicle for this kind of behavior. Exactly. Thats why its important for kids starting early to talk about what makes them comfortable or uncomfortable in situations like that. Its comfortable to share, you know, School Problems with your teacher. Is it comfortable to discuss personal issues . Probably not. And being clear that its not just men who may be the predators, its women, too. Yes. Traditionally weve always warned them against men and strangers as being the problem, and you never really recognize that women can be a problem as well for other youngsters, male and female, because the women are seen as the nurturers and men as the aggressors. But we need to change that as we go on in the world. Thank you for being here. Coming up on nbc 10 at issue, minimum wage is not being raised, so some local businesses are taking matters into their own hands. Well discuss that next. We buy any car dot com we buy any car dot com we buy any car dot com any any any any did you know trading in your car at a dealer could cost you money . A recent study found consumers who trade in their car pay an average of 990 dollars more. So dont trade in. Sell it. To we buy any car. Learn more and get your free online valuation now at we buy any car dot com find out how much your car is worth at webuyanycar. Com local businesses have pledged to boost their workers wages, not because theyre being forced to by any new legislation. Instead its a voluntary move in response to what they call inaction on the minimum wage. Joining me now are ken winestein, part of the minimum wage for Small Businesses voluntarily upping their employees pay and we should note that youre owner of charlies diner and charlies cart cafe. Why do this . You want to bring it up to 11 by 2020. Were tired of waiting for government to do this across the board and raise the minimum wage for all businesses, so weve started this voluntary program where were asking businesses to do it voluntarily and incrementally over time. So it means less money for you, more money for you. Tell us what the difference has been. Youre up to 8 now . Yeah, im up to 8. I work, like you said, at the telecart cafe. I can work fewer jobs. Im a fulltime student. I can focus more on my studies and i feel more comfortable staying where im employed longer. Ken, youve said youre tired of waiting on the government to come up with legislation. Why do this . Does this mean happier employees, a happier employer . Its really two major reasons. One is its the right thing to do because employees should be paid enough so that they dont have to live in a poverty level. And secondly, its really good for Small Businesses, and were spreading that word and we really believe that paying more over time means that there will be less turnover leading to lower training costs, and also by putting money more money into the pockets of our employees, they will then have money to spend at nearby businesses which helps all of us. You believe this is an investment for your business but also other businesses. Very much. Very much. And people are already agreeing with us on this. Katherine, what are your friends and coworkers saying about this . Oh, everyone is very enthusiastic about this. Across the board who ive spoken to who are employees of businesses like kens, very enthusiastic. Its something we all feel like weve been waiting for. Like ken mentioned, we shouldnt have to be below the poverty line if we work fulltime or we work a certain number of hours. I feel a sense of relief being inspired by more federal efforts on this front, definitely. Do you see more Small Businesses in the philadelphia region following this movement and joining in . Yeah, we just started this last month, and we already have 30 Small Businesses on board. And our goal for the year is to get a thousand businesses on board affecting 10,000 j were heading there. Critics, of course, counter that higher wages will lead to layoffs. How do you respond to that . Yeah, we just dont see that. We see so far at trolley car diner and trolley car cafe, as an example, we see businesses coming in that want to support their values. So 11 and 11. 20 is what youre hoping to reach minimum wage. Do you see the government making that happen . We really dont see it and thats why we decided to act now. Thank you both for being with us. dear fellow citizen, i know what its like to worry about student loan debt. I graduated into it. So i couldnt do the things i love, like traveling. But i knew there had to be a way to manage it. Citizens Bank Education refinance loan. Call. An education refinance loan helped me save on payments each month. If you have a question about whether refinancing is right for you, ask me. Sincerely, robert kennedy, fellow grad and fellow citizen. Call. To refi now. Thats it for this edition of nbc 10 at issue. Thanks for joining us. Let us know what issues you think we should be covering. You can call us at 6106685738 or find us on twitter n brks krrc twitter nbc10 issue. Have a great day. Nbc sports home of the olympic games. The nhl. Premier league. The nascar playoffs. And primetimes number one show, sunday night football. Only on nbc. Game three of a fivegame home stand for the dallas stars, who look for their first threegame winning streak since december. Tyler seguin leads the way for the stars with 59 points. Hell face his former team, and david pastrnak, whos been heating up once again for boston, eleven points in the last eight games