The wild canine also acted aggressively toward people
California federal officials killed a coyote that was responsible for killing at least three dogs and acting aggressively toward people.
According to sfgate.com, the young male coyote was dispatched at San Francisco’s Crissy Field on Sunday, October 6, 2024.
An investigation revealed the wild canine had killed at least three small dogs that were off-leash and bit a number of other dogs, including at least one on-leash dog.
There were also reports that the animal charged at people on a trail in the Presidio, the 1,491-acre park that includes Crissy Field.
Officials had attempted to haze the animal, and even shot it with a paintball gun, but the attacks didn’t stop. The coyote had become habituated, likely because people were illegally feeding it.
A DNA sample collected after the coyote was killed matched up with two dogs that were bitten. Katie Smith, a National Park Service biologist, told SFGATE on Wednesday that the team believes this is the same animal that killed the dogs.
Officials decided to kill the coyote on Oct. 1 after observing and receiving reports of the coyote acting aggressively toward dogs in at least six separate incidences across the Presidio. The coyote charged at an individual and then backed up and moved toward a group of people (nobody was bitten or injured) on the Mountain Lake Trail near Paul Goode Field.
“It wasn’t extremely aggressive but crossed the line,” Phoebe Parker-Shames, a wildlife ecologist with the Presidio Trust, said.
“That’s a little snapshot of the amount of chaos that can come from one animal,” Parker-Shames said. “It probably felt like there were six coyotes in the park that day. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”