Hey, there! Log in / Register

Coyote pack rips into dog, owner on Milton/Quincy line

WFXT reports the dog lost a foot, both are now getting rabies shots.

Neighborhoods: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

That's just completely terrifying.

up
Voting closed 0

... the owner was able to fend them off.
I hope the dog adapts to walking on three legs.

up
Voting closed 0

he had a small knife in his pocket and slashed the leader who took off and the pack followed.

up
Voting closed 0

Dog and other pets/animal adapt quite quickly to losing a limb. To give it a human emotion-bent, they're rather matter of fact about it. One day they have 4 legs, the next they have 3. Life moves on.

up
Voting closed 0

Eddie's Wheels for Pets is a great resource for disabled pets. Good to remember if your pet ever loses mobility for some reason.

up
Voting closed 0

I took a client and his wife out to Eddie's for a set for their Pug. Wonderful people!!

up
Voting closed 0

This could be future in MA

https://youtu.be/uO_NXs8Vtfc

up
Voting closed 0

It's time to start eradicating these vermin.

up
Voting closed 0

Seeking to eat?

up
Voting closed 0

particularly in favor of eradicating coyotes, but really moral culpability has nothing to do with it. I don't blame the smallpox virus for doing what came naturally to it, but I'm happy to see it eradicated just the same.

up
Voting closed 0

This could be our answer to the Turkey invasion .

up
Voting closed 0

You have no grasp of what an ecosystem is or how it functions, do you?

May you be suffocated by a plague of rabbits and rats and human garbage.

up
Voting closed 0

The Coyotes are takin care of the rabbits and rats at least!

I always think its funny when people are shocked by this. Shows how little folks are aware of their IRL surroundings. Notice the bunny boom in the Boston area in the last 5 years? That means the coyotes are right behind 'em. Rabbits will be gone in another year or two and the packs move on....
♪the circle of liiiiife♪

up
Voting closed 0

The outdoor cats have all but disappeared in my neck of the woods, oh there were posters up for a while but...on the plus side, the song birds seem to be doing better so I guess there's that.

up
Voting closed 0

Our indoor cat became an outdoor cat for about 2 hours the other night. As the family scoured the neighbor's backyards with flashlights and cell phones, each of us encountered one or more rabbits just hanging out in other people's yards. They didn't even run away.

(We found the cat before the coyote found him.)

up
Voting closed 0

Before the coyotes moved back into the hood about 10 years ago, I failed to notice the horde of rabbits and rats about.

up
Voting closed 0

Coyotes are here because humans leave garbage everywhere and that means that their pray grows large and delicious.

You need a freshman HS level biology lesson so that you can understand the stupidity of what you just said. They were here before we were.

up
Voting closed 0

Cool meme but coyotes were here way before we were.

up
Voting closed 0

they weren't. Coyotes didn't arrive in the northeastern United States until the way was prepared for them by humans, specifically European humans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

up
Voting closed 0

We got rid of the Eastern Wolves, which were indigenous, and then over time Western Coyotes migrated in to fill that ecosystem slot, hybridizing with dogs and wolves as they did so.

So we've ended up with coyotes that are larger and more aggressive than their progenitors out west, and are also less averse to human interaction than the wolves that were here originally. (They're still quite a bit smaller than non-hybridized wolves though, so at least there's that).

Maybe we should figure out just how important/persistent that predator slot is, and if it turns out to be something that overall serves the environmental health of the region, we should see if we can come up with a way to fill it with the smaller, more cowardly version of coyotes found out west.

up
Voting closed 0

so what I'm hearing is that you want to develop a coyote sized terminator.

up
Voting closed 0

as long as they are sufficiently lacking in judgement. We should get the Acme company involved, and perhaps bring in a few roadrunners.

up
Voting closed 0

How is a video of a song by RHCP (from 1984, no less) a meme?

up
Voting closed 0

The word "meme" has lost almost all its original technical meaning and come to mean pretty much any snippet of media transmitted over the internet, usually for (allegedly) humorous effect.

As a semantics nerd and the father of a teen, this has caused a fair amount of teeth grinding on my part.

up
Voting closed 0

Get Off My Lawn!

I gnash my teeth in solidarity!

up
Voting closed 0

They are far more dangerous than coyotes.

up
Voting closed 0

Let's drag this thread into a bike/car fight! Perfect.

up
Voting closed 0

This is UHub, you can't ever go to long without hearing how bad cars, drivers, parking, etc are. Just par for the course.

up
Voting closed 0

I fixed it for you.

This is UHub, you can't ever go to long without hearing how bad cars, drivers, parking, etc are. Just parK for the course.

up
Voting closed 0

Rats, mice, possums, raccoons, squirrels and rabbits that coyotes eat?

Or the two legged kind that can't seem to stop mindlessly throwing their garbage around and creating coyote food supplies on our habitats?

up
Voting closed 0

I have lived in the same house for 35 years. Before the coyotes moved into the forest across the street we were not overrun with mice, possums, raccoons, or rabbits. Never saw a rat, saw the cyclical population of squirrels, saw the occasional deer - population also cyclical. You Eastern city folk need to stop romanticizing the coyote. They are not part of the traditional New England ecosystem.

up
Voting closed 0

If there were no food there would be no coyotes.

up
Voting closed 0

Notice all the hawks, too?

They aren't eating beagles - they are eating the eaters of bagels.

There has been a rat and rabbit explosion, and a deer explosion, too.

Just because you aren't paying attention to the controls on those populations doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

Go kill your own dog - dogs kill a lot more people than coyotes.

up
Voting closed 0

they are eating the eaters of bagels.

OH NO! What's a girl from the Bronx to do???

up
Voting closed 0

I had heard about the ubiquity of mammal and insect pests from naturalists numerous times. I recall in my master-gardener classes that lecturers from UMASS shocked the snoots. A few students from Wellesley and Brookline proclaimed that the likes of rats were big-city and poor-person problem in places like Boston, Worcester and Lawrence.

The lecturers snorted. They cited figures of populations in rich towns. Their presence is what the integrated pest management folk call "the night shift." Your not noticing mice, rats, voles and the like does not mean they aren't feeding around and maybe in your house. Cats, coyotes, and raptors manage to chow down on them.

up
Voting closed 0

Clearly they are in the Whispering Wood visiting the Badger.

Toad does of course live in Wellesley or maybe Weston though.

up
Voting closed 0

We have come across a few moles (mostly stupid, slow and very flat in driveways). On the other hand, in the decades we lived in JP, we found voles everywhere.

These tiny, very dark, mouse-like critters (murine for the precise types), voles sported in afternoon well into night throughout the yards. Most people weren't about and didn't notice them. Our Maine coon cat sure did. He cruelly considered them his favorite toys. He'd swat 'em, toss 'em in the air and otherwise have a grand time. He didn't seem to consider them food. Eventually, he'd kill the latest vole. If a cat can look disappointed, he sure did. We couldn't dissuade him.

up
Voting closed 0

My Maine Coon cat has a thing for rabbits. She enthusiastically pursues them, is large and strong enough to catch them, and we often find nothing but unlucky rabbit's feet (and a bloated snoring cat indoors) in the aftermath. She doesn't play with them at least.

I scolded her for this once, but she then insisted that I follow her out to my garden. There were signs of struggle. How can I complain?

I have the only garden in the neighborhood that survived rabbit munching last summer. Here I thought that I grow a garden so that I can have food for me. She thinks I have a garden to attract food for her.

up
Voting closed 0

Moi?

Oh honey.

I live next to a woodland in a fairly densely populated area and have seem marked changes in the number and mix of critters over twenty years. Deer sleep in my yard in winter, turkeys and rabbits are most out of control these days.

You must be new to hunting if you aren't aware of game abundance around you. As a rural and then exurban westerner, I grew up on game shot by members of my family, including me... but thanks for playing.

up
Voting closed 0

.... to attempt something like this.
Probably not rabid. However, stopping the spread of rabies is something we have needed to spend more money on for a long time. There are effective methods used elsewhere that have proven to work that protect wildlife as well as us and our pets. Time to get with the program.

up
Voting closed 0

If that's true, I guess the annual Blue Hills hunting should be stopped to keep the food supply of deer up?

This seems like a real outlier event and shouldn't trigger any policy changes in terms of regional wildlife management.

up
Voting closed 0

We don't need policy changes. These kinds of things can be avoided by painting pictures of tunnels on the side of walls or making fake lady coyotes out of dynamite. This is basic ecology guys.

up
Voting closed 0

How do you prevent this from happening?

up
Voting closed 0

Don't grow emotionally attached to dogs. The coyotes acted like coyotes.

Let's discuss proposals to halt tides and end winter while we're at it.

up
Voting closed 0

Down with Winter.

up
Voting closed 0

To answer the OP, I don't know what we do to prevent or reduce this type of attack, but surely it's not "easy." When a small child is attacked, are you going to hop on UHub to remind parents not to become too attached to their children until the onset of puberty?

up
Voting closed 0

Please explain.

Then let's talk about how many small children are attacked each year by dogs.

Then let's talk about how many small children are attacked each year by motor vehicles.

up
Voting closed 0

in excruciating detail for you and your fellow replier:

I am responding to the comment (perhaps glibly made) that a solution to this problem is to care less about the target of coyote attacks.

I am pointing out that children have been and can reasonably expected to continue to be the target of coyote attacks. I hope that consideration of this will demonstrate the shortcomings of the proposed principle.

I am not claiming that coyotes pose a large threat to children, either in absolute numbers or as a percentage of their attacks. Because my statement is not about the relative threats children face, your "counterpoints" about dog attacks and motor vehicle "attacks" are irrelevant.

I am not proposing any particular controls on the coyote population "because of the children."

I hope this clears things up for you all.

up
Voting closed 0

WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!!!!!

Funny how we don't say that when it comes to drivers killing them.

up
Voting closed 0

Let's keep trying to drag this thread into a bike/car fight! Perfect.

up
Voting closed 0

There's plenty that can be done to prevent this, it starts with educating yourself about coyotes.

The article said the victim had encountered coyotes previously. Now we can get the word out that coyote might come after you. So when your walking your dog, don't brisk past any coyotes if you see them, get outta there.

Fun Fact: Coyotes usually don't enter the city or if they do, they don't stay very far away from an escape route (thick trees, a ravine etc...)You aren't likely to get coyote attacked at Downtown Crossing. I know it's not always feasible, but if you have a small dog, and you live near woods, and you know there's coyotes there, stick to busy streets and areas with a lot of buildings and foot traffic.

As for tides and winter, we can educate ourselves about that too. I don't just step outside into a blizzard wearing shorts and flip flops because there's nothing that can be done.

up
Voting closed 0

The WFXT site includes photos of the recovering dog, Matilda, bandages and all. Such a harrowing and painful experience.

up
Voting closed 0

Getting a series of shots for rabies is not fun.

up
Voting closed 0

They're actually not that bad anymore. No more shots in the stomach (thank goodness). Got them a few years back and it wasn't any worse than any of the other vaccinations we get normally.

up
Voting closed 0

I was just including the human owner in the equation. I still can think of other things I would rather be doing than getting a series of shots, not so much from the pain but from the time suck.

up
Voting closed 0

I am a Quincy resident. In the past month I've noticed a lone coyote walking after sundown somewhat nearby in the vicinity of Furnace Brook Parkway near Reardon. I assumed the coyote lived in the woods of Saint Mary's Cemetery. Granite Links is not faraway but it requires crossing the expressway. That's hard to imagine!

up
Voting closed 0

I'm not denying this happened, but has anybody here ever seen more than one coyote at a time?

I haven't. Every time I've seen a coyote out here in I-495 land, it has always been a loner. Always.

People often express their fear for packs of coyotes, seemingly equating them with wolves. I just haven't seen it.

Anybody?

up
Voting closed 0

Have seen two and three together in Jamaica Plain over the years--I have not seen four, but haven't hung around long enough to see if there was more to the pack. Saw two in the back yard last year.

I hear them in the Spring and Summer howling and barking and it sounds to me like more than one coyote.

up
Voting closed 0

Up on Fairmount Hill in HP, several neighbors refer to Summit Street as Coyote Alley. I've seen moms hunting with two or more of her offspring, but usually more like March than now.

I'm surprised by the attack too. Normally our coyotes like to pick up a rabbit or cat or such, something small enough to carry home to the den. I had to wonder whether Matilda was brave and tried to intimidate toe coyotes to protect her and her human chum..

up
Voting closed 0

The "Eastern Coyote" is a Western Coyote hybridized with dogs and wolves. Larger, and they do form packs, instead of being solely solitary.

Heckin' cute, too, but as another result of that hybridization they are more likely to come into conflict with humans and their pets.

Stories like this one I mostly chalk up to being the price we pay for being even slightly close to nature. Yeah, if there are some problem individuals, we can transport or kill those, but you can't avoid all such encounters.

up
Voting closed 0

I've seen mostly solitaries over the years, but in the last ten years there have been occasional AWOOO festivals nearby of a full moon. Like last night. Very eerie sounds - definitely not something you would expect to hear in an inner suburban neighborhood!

Then came the large increase in the number of deer.

Then they started organizing to take down the deer.

I suspect that coyotes were sufficiently successful at taking deer to have a population rise ... and now there seem to be fewer deer, so they are using their teamwork skillz for other prey that is too large to snack alone. I also have to wonder if the extreme early winter weather has something to do with their shift in venue.

My neighbor is a big coyote booster. He's also kind of casual about letting his Jack Russell Terrierist loose without a leash to run off into the woods. Two weeks ago he warned people that the Coyotes got one of their pack to lure the dumb dog into chasing it, and that two others were closing in when he went out blowing an air horn to run them all off. The terrierist doesn't like the leash, but, hey, lesson learned for the human.

From 2013:
IMAGE(https://static1.squarespace.com/static/563d6078e4b0396c216603c8/563e151fe4b0f5552f678c5a/563e151fe4b0f5552f678c5e/1446910121258/coyotewithdeerheadatsuckerbrook_davidpallin_wildlife1.jpg?format=1500w)

up
Voting closed 0

Yep, I walk my dog (off leash) in Wompatuck all the time. During the winter, there are deer kills around there occasionally. I've come across a few gnawed out carcasses. Just waiting for the game population to get low enough for a coyote to snatch somebody's dog.

up
Voting closed 0

..

up
Voting closed 0

up
Voting closed 0