Wildlife officials are quick to tell you that coyote attacks on humans are rare, but a simple Google search will tell you that those coyote attacks aren’t that rare. It happens more often than you might think. Attacks on pets and livestock are common and most go unreported.
Your family and livestock do not need to be victims. You can either try to build high enough fences and bury hardware cloth around all your fences and animal housing to keep them from tunneling under or you can keep a livestock guardian animal.
You might want to be aware that not all livestock animals will defend other animals while under attack, some will only keep the other animals from being attacked. I’ve even heard of livestock animals actually tossing chickens over the fence to predators, so all livestock guardian animals may not protect all kinds of farm animals.
Dogs that are not livestock guardian breeds and cats will actually attract predators, not guard against them. Where we live in Western North Carolina, our neighbors have all reported lost pets to coyotes and many have lost livestock. Having one or more livestock guardian dogs seems to make all the difference. Even though we keep our dogs within a perimeter and our chickens range outside that perimeter, to date we have not lost a single chicken to predators. Our Amish neighbors who have many dogs, but livestock guardian dogs have lost nearly all their chickens to coyotes and hawks and are currently without any chickens.
The Attempted Attack On Our Daughter
When we were a young family traveling through Southeastern Oregon between Winnemucca, Nevada and Ontario, Oregon we pulled of the road for a rest stop. While Kristia was in our car with our infant son, our three year old daughter was out burning off some energy running along a ranch road next to Highway 95.
Some of the time I ran around with her and some of the time I just let her run. It was a beautiful clear morning when all of a sudden I noticed movement in the tall open-range grass of a very large coyote running full-tilt to intersect with where she was running. I called out to her to stop which she promptly did. It certainly saved her from serous injury and possible death.
I ran as fast as I could toward our daughter, scooping her up with one arm while palming a large rock with the other. I had reached my daughter just about 15 yards ahead of the coyote. Over the next five minutes we had a standoff, they coyote eyeing my daughter and making moves to charge while I postured myself to slam it with the rock if it lunged.
I knew from my experience over the years with both domestic and wild dogs, not to turn your back or appear to be fleeing when faced with an attack. It will trigger the instinct to pursue. It was a very intense five minutes of each of us showing we were committed to fight. The time of day was somewhere between 8:30 and 9:30 in the morning.
Eventually the coyote backed down and I was able to slowly back away toward our car. The experience has helped me be more vigilant toward the possibility of predator attacks anywhere at any time of day. You’ll find in your Google search that predator attacks on people and livestock are not limited to remote locations. They sometimes happen right in urban areas.
A livestock guardian dog can help prevent these attacks on you, your family and your animals, whether livestock or pets. Find out about recent documented coyote attacks. Google Search for Coyote Attacks >>