Coyote Attack

A 13 year old Maplewood girl was attacked on the leg by a coyote at the Dog Park in the reservation today. Her dog was also injured. Another woman was also injured. They assume the coyote is rabid as it was alone. So far the coyote has not been found The girl is hospitalized and the park is closed.

Coyote attacks are just about unheard of.  Sad.  Don't want whatever few numbers there are of them in the Rez wiped out. 

bub said:

Coyote attacks are just about unheard of.  Sad.  Don't want whatever few numbers there are of them in the Rez wiped out. 

who cares about the coyote, my concern is a little girl.

CharlesG said:

who cares about the coyote, my concern is a little girl.

You can’t be concerned about both things?

CharlesG said:

bub said:

Coyote attacks are just about unheard of.  Sad.  Don't want whatever few numbers there are of them in the Rez wiped out. 

who cares about the coyote, my concern is a little girl.

oh, please, do shut up. A little girl has hospitalized. That’s all that matters the animal will  be killed.

Euthanising the animal isn’t always necessary (although, maybe with the rabies maybe over there it is necessary). On K’gari, we’ve recently had a few incident biting incidents by dingoes (wongari); sometimes, they’re relocated to a more remote spot. 
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-22/dingo-attacks-boy-on-kgari-fraser-island/102508826

(We don’t have rabies in Oz. And dingoes are usually quite gentle and very intelligent. If they ‘go’ for you, either you’ve teased them or wild dingoes are expecting food from you, even though we’re taught NOT to feed them.) 

I would have thought Coyotes are much the same…?

Charlie seems to be frothing at the mouth…

I don't care about "the animal,"especially to the extent it's rabid which it probably is, but I'm not for wiping out all of them.  They've been around for years without incident.  Other, individual non-predatory mammals become rabid and vicious.  They don't look to wipe out the whole species in the area.

joanne said:

Euthanising the animal isn’t always necessary (although, maybe with the rabies maybe over there it is necessary). On K’gari, we’ve recently had a few incident biting incidents by dingoes (wongari); sometimes, they’re relocated to a more remote spot. 
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-22/dingo-attacks-boy-on-kgari-fraser-island/102508826

(We don’t have rabies in Oz. And dingoes are usually quite gentle and very intelligent. If they ‘go’ for you, either you’ve teased them or wild dingoes are expecting food from you, even though we’re taught NOT to feed them.) 

I would have thought Coyotes are much the same…?

Coyotes are all over our area. In my lifetime, I have seen just one. That was in Maine. They keep to themselves, well hidden. They do not chase people as food or for handouts or other such things. 

The attack in the reservation was rare.

joanne said:

Euthanising the animal isn’t always necessary (although, maybe with the rabies maybe over there it is necessary). On K’gari, we’ve recently had a few incident biting incidents by dingoes (wongari); sometimes, they’re relocated to a more remote spot. 
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-22/dingo-attacks-boy-on-kgari-fraser-island/102508826

(We don’t have rabies in Oz. And dingoes are usually quite gentle and very intelligent. If they ‘go’ for you, either you’ve teased them or wild dingoes are expecting food from you, even though we’re taught NOT to feed them.) 

I would have thought Coyotes are much the same…?

Rabies is 100% fatal unless treated immediately after a bite and a horrible way to go. Euthanizing the animal is he only way to go, unfortunately.

Rabies affects the nervous system, One of the effects of rabies is that it turns the animal extremely aggressive, and very likely to bite and pass the infection on. This is the case even for species or individuals that are mild and not aggressive. It is a really terrible disease.

.

I have seen coyotes in my backyard more than once — we moved into their home grounds, the pinelands preserve where all the Sopranos’ victims were laid to rest. I love mostly all furry creatures, but these are really scary looking. The golf course here has fake replicas along the course, but they are mostly there to scare off ducks and diarrhea-prone Canadian geese.

I put up a dummy coyote this Spring (The Tractor Store online) to keep deer out of my flowerbeds. The house camera picks up the nightly roaming deer, — and an occasional coyote —but they keep at the woodline. The  fake one, however, startles guests!

My heart goes out to that traumatized little girl who will probably have lifelong issues and fears. As will the dog parents who witnessed the attack.

Growing up in Brooklyn, I never gave a thought to our dogs needing friends or playmates. I recall them as contented little creatures who expected regular daily meals, real bones from the butcher, cuddles, a wam bed, and a neighborhood stroll on a leash as needed. And they learned, early on, to leave the working cat alone to seek out mice — which were rampant back in the day.

Here is a coyote strolling thru my backyard a couple of months ago — before I put up its replica.

CharlesG said:

CharlesG said:

bub said:

Coyote attacks are just about unheard of.  Sad.  Don't want whatever few numbers there are of them in the Rez wiped out. 

who cares about the coyote, my concern is a little girl.

oh, please, do shut up. A little girl has hospitalized. That’s all that matters the animal will  be killed.

Ok, I am capable of caring about more than one thing at a time. You seem to be more….. limited. And rude.

Also, note, no one is concerned about the coyote that bit the girl. That coyote will have to be put down. What people are concerned about is a backlash against all off the coyotes.

Here’s a link to some information about coyotes from the NJ DEP. 

https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/hunting/coyote-and-fox/

From the article, it sounds like one possibility is that the animal had become habituated to humans. Maybe people had been feeding it, so it approached the girl and the dog. They typically avoid humans and domestic dogs but if they are taught that they can get food from people they can become more likely to approach.

My takeaways from the article:

1. If a coyote approaches make a lot of noise, yell at it. Don’t run away.
   
2. Don’t leave food out where they can get it, because they’ll learn that’s a good source.
   
3. Don’t feed any wild animals (not just coyotes).
   
4. Bird feeders attract rodents which attract coyotes.
   
5. If you see a coyote that’s out during the day and not avoiding humans, or being aggressive, contact the authorities immediately, and NJ Fish and Wildlife at 908-735-8793; outside of normal business hours call the DEP Hotline at 877-WARN-DEP.

We’ve been seeing lots of chipmunks, rabbits and groundhogs in our yard this spring and summer, so I think we’re going to need to be wary. Yesterday two foxes slunk (slinked?) out of the bushes at the back of our yard while I was standing on tour deck. But as soon as I made noise they scarpered. I have to imagine they got word on the fox network that we have abundant prey in our yard. So I have to imagine coyotes would be attracted as well. 

I was warned on soma Facebook page that this site was littered with weirdos.   I’m beginning to think they were right. a child is hospitalized so let’s use that to save the coyotes. Dumb.  

GoSlugs said:

Ok, I am capable of caring about more than one thing at a time. You seem to be more….. limited. And rude.

Also, note, no one is concerned about the coyote that bit the girl. That coyote will have to be put down. What people are concerned about is a backlash against all off the coyotes.

I genuinely wonder if there will be any way to identify the animal in question. There could be a larger number of coyotes in the reservation than anyone knows. Although from what I’ve been reading, it seems likely this coyote will hang around the area. 

It makes sense to me that the dog park would be a place that attracts coyotes. I’m sure dog treats get dropped in and around the area. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone (or more than one person) decided it was fun to toss a few treats to a coyote that they spotted. A lot of people are not well-informed about the dangers of feeding wild animals. 

New to Soma and MOL is !

CharlesG said:

I was warned on soma Facebook page that this site was littered with weirdos.

To be fair, you told us that SOMA Facebook had already given you the boot so we were kind of warned as well. 

Some news outlets are reporting that a second person was attacked about an hour later in the same vicinity. The attacks took place on the walking trails near the dog park. 

According to local CBS news, the coyote attacked the dog first, and then bit the girl on the leg when she was trying to rescue her dog. 

Local ABC reports that the dog was in critical condition but expected to live. 

One fallacy that has been reported is that a coyote alone during the day is likely to be rabid. According to the national Park Service website, it’s perfectly normal for them to hunt alone during the day. 

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/coyote-info.htm#:~:text=Coyotes%20are%20very%20social%20animals,hunt%20cooperatively%20with%20other%20species!

Don’t feed:

1. Wild animals
2. Trolls

GoSlugs said:

CharlesG said:

I was warned on soma Facebook page that this site was littered with weirdos.

To be fair, you told us that SOMA Facebook had already given you the boot so we were kind of warned as well. 

the boot? No. They just didn’t want restaurant bashing. They said I could do that here. 

mrincredible said:

Don’t feed:

1. Trolls

They certainly are hard to feed on a budget. Picky too. 

The other day, before we heard about this coyote incident, I saw what I first thought was a big fox run across the street from our driveway.  Now I'm wondering if it was a coyote.  They have been spotted and photographed in the neighborhood.   

Foxes look like this picture. 

bub, have you recently seen any large crates labeled Acme? Have you heard something go rushing by with the sound “meep meep”?  If your answer to both of these questions is yes, it is very possible that you have seen a coyote in your neighborhood.

Here's a few articles on the incident:

https://patch.com/new-jersey/westorange/woman-attacked-aggressive-coyote-south-mountain-reservation

https://pix11.com/news/local-news/new-jersey/girl-attacked-by-coyote-at-south-mountain-reservation-in-nj-officials/

A shih tzu was attacked and lost an eye - there's a goFundMe page for this here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/dog-surgery-after-coyote-attack-in-woods

We had a coyote once on Hilton avenue a few years ago. They will kill a small dog easily. Just a couple of days ago I saw one in Glen Ridge close to the border with East Orange. So they are multiplying. They’re probably feeding on rabbits, chipmunks and gerbils and whatever is available in the reservation. It was wise to close the reservation. Rabies is no joke.

I just want to point out that there is no reason to believe the coyote was rabid. 

mrincredible said:

I just want to point out that there is no reason to believe the coyote was rabid. 

Unless the coyote who actually bit the child is identified and tested, there is no way of knowing whether the coyote was rabid.  Since it will be nearly impossible to identify the coyote in question, the hospital will have to proceed under the assumption that the coyote had rabies.  

Rabies is serious but when you look it up, there are 1 to 3 human cases in the U.S. every year.  Very rare.

joan_crystal said:

Unless the coyote who actually bit the child is identified and tested, there is no way of knowing whether the coyote was rabid.  Since it will be nearly impossible to identify the coyote in question, the hospital will have to proceed under the assumption that the coyote had rabies.  

I agree with this. Medically you have to assume rabies.