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January 8, 2009
Child's Best Friend
The following story makes me think that it mightn't be a bad idea finally to fill the gap left by our previous dog:
An animal that wildlife experts believe to be a coyote attacked a 7-year-old girl on Prudence Island on Dec. 30, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her toward the woods.But the girl's white American Labrador, named Kelly, fought the attacker off and saved her from injury.
According to what a Department of Environmental Management representative from the Fish and Wildlife division told Portsmouth police, this would be the first recorded coyote attack on a person in Rhode Island. ...
Lauren told her mother that she had heard rustling in the woods and had thought it was their neighbor and his beagle. When Lauren got closer to investigate, she said she saw what she thought was a dog that was taller than her Labrador and was a black/brown color. The description that Lauren gave of the animal matched a coyote sighting by her neighbor a short while earlier. No dogs living nearby fit the description.
When Ms. Allard spoke to a Department of Environmental Management wildlife biologist he concluded that it must have been a coyote.
"When it spotted her, it charged her," Ms. Allard said, repeating how Lauren described the attack.
Wearing only a long-sleeved shirt and a vest, Lauren was bitten on the arm. Lauren said that the coyote pulled her by the arm toward the woods. As Lauren tried to tug away from the animal's grip, Kelly jumped in and bit the attacker's rear leg.
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About 2 years ago I noticed a weird looking German shepherd type "dog" on my street-I live in an older residential neighborhood in Providence,not some new subdivision next to the woods.On closer observation,it looked to actually be a coyote.
Posted by: joe bernstein at January 8, 2009 7:44 PMThe next night there were FIVE of them.I called animal Control.They referred me to DEM.DEM told me to make notes of the time and place of the sighting and send it to them.I asked if coyotes were protected,or could I just shoot them.They said I could shoot them if they were 500 feet or more from an occupied dwelling.Well,why would I want to shoot them if they were that far away?No answer.What a crock of s**t.These animals aren't exactly chipmunks.
If one comes into my yard,I will dump it and pay the fine.
As a summer resident of Prudence Island, and over the last couple of years, there have been many stories about coyotes becoming a nuisance on this island, especially from the hunters during hunting season, most of the time DEM would pooh-pooh the stories, so notice that it takes a child being harmed to get our state officials to take notice.
Posted by: Sandra at January 8, 2009 8:02 PMUpon moving to Providence someone mentioned coyotes. I laughed...in Providence? Having moved from Western Cranston we thought we had seen it all.
One night I went to to pick up my little dog at my parents house. Low and behold I began following a large dog down the street. I realized it was a coyote. My dad and I both brought the dog out that night. I haven't seen them since but imagine...in Providence.
Posted by: North End Chick at January 8, 2009 11:33 PMThe Butler Hospital campus has a whole pack of them.
Posted by: EMT at January 9, 2009 6:09 PMWildlife "managers" continue to soft-pedal reports of negative interactions with coyotes in spite of the fact that a growing number of communities nationwide are beginning to report aggressive coyote behaviors at an alarming rate. At RIDEM, the response to concerns is said to be "public education". That consists of dispersing flyers saying don't leave garbage out. It's en vogue now for wildlife managers to embrace the concept of larger predators living in close proximity to humans. This attitude will continue until something truly awful happens... and even then, I'm betting they'll find a way to make it the victim's fault. Another shining example of your tax dollars at work.
Posted by: iggy at January 10, 2009 7:19 AM