Fort Worth police this morning reportedly killed a coyote after it killed a toy poodle near the Monterra Village Apartments.
According to Pam Shope, a neighbor who witnessed the morning’s events, the coyote snatched one of two poodles out for a walk with their human. The coyote approached and the dogs’ owner scooped up the pair. One fell from her grasp and ended up in the coyote’s jaws.
Shope told NBCDFW she grabbed a broom and gave chase.
"At first, because it was still early in the morning, it was dark, I thought it was a dog and I asked the lady if she needed help and she said, 'A coyote has my dog,' and so I ran down and grabbed a broom and just instinct, I'm an animal lover, I've had dogs, and I just went after it.
“I tried to help her retrieve her dog and the coyote was not afraid of me at all. I was swinging a broom at him, yelling at him, and he just stood his ground, so they're obviously pretty aggressive and not afraid of people, which scares me because I have little ones that play out here and I don't know, you know, when's it gonna be, you know, attacks on humans?"
Shope called 911, and police traced the coyote to its den about 150 yards from the apartments. There, Shope said, “… apparently the coyote tried to lunge at the officer as well so he had to shoot him."
From admittedly what little I know about coyote this is aberrant behavior. Typically, they run from humans and noise.
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It’s a scary thing for pets and people if coyotes have become so accustomed to our presence they no longer give us a second thought when they’re determined to eat.
Just another good reason to avoid letting pets out for unsupervised outdoor romps. Even when they are supervised, apparently, tragedy can strike.
Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He hates to see animals killed. Sure, he eats meat, but he doesn’t see the cow, pig, or chicken killed.
