A dog has died after it was attacked by a coyote in Massachusetts.
Chris Del Dotto let his 15-year-old silky terrier named JJ out before bed on May 27, in Nahant, when the incident occurred, WCVB reported. He suddenly heard his dog shrieking, and when he turned around, he saw that a coyote had him in its jaws.
Del Dotto tried to scare away the coyote with a horn. JJ was rushed to a veterinarian but the coyote had bitten him all over. The dog, who was only 11 pounds, could not overcome the injuries.
Del Dotto told WCVB that he had loved the dog “to death.”
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“He was my buddy,” Del Dotto told the news outlet. “I’m never going to forget the noise he made, and taking him to the hospital and seeing him dying in front of me. It was horrible.”
“It was just chaos,” Holly Yeager, a neighbor of Del Dotto and witness to the attack, told WCVB.
Coyotes can be found all over Massachusetts, apart from Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Although they rarely attack humans, they will go after cats (domestic or feral) as well as small dogs, although not as often as cats, according to A-Z Animals. They have been known to take on larger dog breeds with the aid of another pack member.
The animals are nocturnal and rarely seen in daylight hours. But Urban Coyote Research Project warns that you should never leave pets unattended outdoors, not even for a second.
The town of Nahant said on its website that it has had a problem with “habituated coyotes,” which have lost their natural fear of humans and are less likely to flee when they encounter one. This generally occurs when coyotes have been fed by people.
In 2022, town officials signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to address the issue. The agreement saw professional rifle experts arrive in the area to remove the coyotes during three visits. Although some residents were not comfortable with this method, MassWildlife said it is the best way to remove the animals. The other method to remove them from the wild involves box cage traps, which have a low success rate.
Last year, coyotes attacked pet dogs multiple times, but it had been awhile since there were any reports of aggressive encounters, WCVB reported.
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