CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. -- Wildlife official said coyotes are on the move. Their food supply is shrinking and your family pet could be it's next meal.

People in the Buffalo Creek area of Cleveland County understand the problem first hand. Forest Bridges said he keeps a load gun nearby at all times.

"I don't mind killing them if I see them", he said.

He said the number of coyotes are growing, and they have even attacked and killed a neighbor’s pet dog.

"They are growing and growing fast", Bridges said.

The animals killed calves at a neighbor's farm and chickens at another. Kathleen Hjelling said a neighbor told her they are creeping around her home in the Cross Creek subdivision. Then she and her husband saw one in their backyard.

"This gray thing just shot past us", she said.

Since then she has started keeping her dogs inside.

Wildlife Officer Ken Cook said there is no truth to the rumors that wildlife officials planted the coyotes there to kill overpopulated deer. He said they migrated from western states, and because no animal prey on them, their numbers have steadily grown.

Cook said, "A coyote is the top of the food chain."

Unfortunately, he said, in the fall their food supply shrinks. They have gone through most of what's available in the wild so they look to domestic animals.

"A young goat, a young cow, a sheep -- whatever they can get. They’ve got to eat," Cook said.

Cook said you can shoot the coyotes if they endanger your, your family or your animals. He said you can also get a license to hunt them year around.

The state wants the animals reduced. Cook said other states have even awarded bounties for people who kill the canines. But that hasn’t worked.

"Once the get established, they are pretty much there to stay," Cook said.