As Heather Robinson was sitting in a Calgary emergency room waiting to get a rabies shot on Saturday night, she was shocked to learn she wasn’t the only one in the same situation.
She and two other women were waiting for their treatment after being bitten by a coyote in the northwest community of Tuscany that same night.
“I was sitting (on my porch) and not paying attention and I felt something here on my leg and (I) turned and I was shocked. And I got up thinking: is that a dog or coyote?” Robinson told Global News Monday.
“It went for me again and I just lost my mind and screamed and swore and it finally ran off.”
Robinson said there was a “clean bite” on her leg. Afterward, she went to the hospital to be checked out.
“When I went to the ER I started hearing people talking about it and it was: ‘Wow, you and you also?'” she said.
“There was two other women that got bit. One young woman, it came out of nowhere and bit her on the side on (her) bottom, and the other woman, not far from here, was sitting and it bit her on the shoulder.
“How brazen. It’s not normal coyote behavior.”
‘Prioritizing public safety’
According to Lincoln Julie, Calgary Parks integrated pest management lead, Robinson is right — the coyote’s behaviour is out of the ordinary. And for that reason, this coyote, like the one that attacked people in Nolan Hill, will be killed by wildlife officials.
The coyote responsible for the attacks was identified through photos, descriptions and accounts of its behaviour from those who encountered it, Julie said.
He said officials also tried to deter the Tuscany coyote through hazing measures after the first bite on June 23, however, it didn’t work, and three more people were bitten just three days later.
“Because of the frequency of the bites and the aggression associated with the bites and the short timeframe they occurred in, the city is working together with Alberta Fish and Wildlife to immediately remove this coyote. We are prioritizing public safety at this point and believe this is the best course of action at this time,” he said.
“The quickest, safest, most humane way to do it at this point is with a firearm.”
Julie said officials have tracked the coyote’s travel paths and will determine the best time and place to kill the animal.
There have been no reports of rabies being detected in either of the bite victims, but Julie said both coyotes will be sent for rabies testing once they’re killed.
‘Don’t exactly know’ why both situations are so similar
Julie said officials don’t know what’s behind the attacks, or why the two situations are so alike, especially considering coyotes actually attacking humans is very rare.
“We don’t exactly know what’s happening in these two cases and why they’re so similar. It is completely a coincidence that they’re so similar,” he said.
However, Julie said the coyotes involved in the attacks could be conditioned to search for food near humans, adding officials have received reports of people all over the city both directly and indirectly feeding coyotes.
“When people feed coyotes directly, it almost always is a bad thing. It never really turns out very well for the coyote, and that goes to say that if you don’t want coyotes in your yard, don’t feed them,” Julie said.
He said even in a heatwave like the one the city is currently experiencing, coyotes can fend for themselves to find food and water.
Julie said the city is not “overrun” by coyotes, but there is a healthy population of them across Calgary, adding they can be found in many communities. The city has no plans to revisit its coyote management plan at this time.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Monday that the situation is “actually quite dangerous,” and the city is having to resort to more drastic measures to deal with the coyotes.
“What we have to be careful about is, what we’ve learned, what the research shows quite clearly, is that if you destroy all these animals, believe it or not, it leads to more brazen behavior,” Nenshi said.
“The animals breed faster and they tend to be more aggressive. So you’ve got to really have the right balance here. But clearly, our commitment here has to be to human safety.”
— With files from Jill Croteau, Global News
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