It was a terrifying experience for Gordon Pearse, but he’s reliving his encounter with a coyote at a Calgary park to prevent it from happening to someone else.
While out walking his family dog in spring of 2017, Pearse was minutes from home and not realizing he was actually in someone else’s territory.
“Basically I’m standing right on top of a coyote den,” Pearse said.
A culvert where the coyotes had been denning runs underneath the pathway in the northwest community of Panorama Hills.
Pearse was cornered by two coyotes, who were standing just a few feet from him.
“It was probably the most fearful experience I’ve had in my whole life. The situation, it was total helplessness.”
Pearse pulled his dog Chewie up by the leash, but couldn’t stop the coyotes from attacking the small dog.
Chewie was killed almost instantly, Pearse said.
“To see it be taken right in front of me. I couldn’t do anything, I had to phone my granddaughters who were away on vacation and tell them their pup they left me with was dead.”
Coyote encounters have happened before in the area. In the past year, the Panorama Hills Animal Hospital confirmed it has treated two dogs for coyotes bites.
Chris Manderson is the urban conservation lead with City of Calgary’s parks department. Manderson said the city closed two parks in Panorama Hills in spring of 2017 and tried to cover the culvert to drive the coyotes out.
“What we’ve now learned, our efforts at blocking off that culvert didn’t work. Someone may have removed it,” Manderson said.
“We’re going to go back and see if we can come up with a more tamper-proof solution.”
With the denning season only a couple months away, Pearse hopes something is done soon.
“They were not backing off. They were not afraid.”