"As a group of children played in the backyard of a Middletown home, an animal, believed to be one of two or three coyotes that emerged from the woods, ran to and grabbed a 20-month-old boy, township officials said."

"The family managed to scare the animal away, and the toddler was treated at a local hospital for scratches and teeth marks, in what wildlife experts said is probably the first coyote attack on a child in state history."

"After the animal attack Friday off Kings Highway East, near Chapel Hill Road, local officials took a second look at six to eight other recent reported sightings and incidents involving pets that were attacked by what were initially thought to be stray dogs." ...

Nice furry forest critter would not hurt a soul.

Please let me point out what you do not in your post....

This attack on the child was in NEW JERSEY!

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In NJ they aren't smart enough to teach them to eat dogs and cats not kids !!!

What you have here is a classic case of a missing link called the timber wolf to keep these coyotes in check.

We could send about 100 per year to help control your problem.

Given the reported numbers of gun owners in the US I find it odd that when these attacks occur nobody has one handy.

Seriously, I'm not paranoid,

Really!

But the truth is I keep a .45 by the front door, a shotgun under the bed, an AR behind the bedroom door, a .44 in the truck, and a .22 in the shop.

No I don't think for a minute anybody is going to get me, but I do believe in keeping guns handy just in case. If I were in the parents of the little babies shoes I would have had a gun handy to dispatch the coyote. Not "Chase it off,"

quote:

Originally posted by Scott King:
Given the reported numbers of gun owners in the US I find it odd that when these attacks occur nobody has one handy.

The most important point is that this incident occurred in the State of New Jersey.

In New Jersey, guns are the exception not the rule and animals are considered more valuable than people. We humaniods are the endangered species with this type of logic.

The news in upstate new york carried the story the day it happened. the local newsbroad said "coyotes are the size of a grown German Shepard dog" --- I don't know what they feed them in New Jersey-- but here in the midwest that would make an 80 to 120 pound coyote. I have never seen one half that size. No wonder they are chasing children!

Buckeye, the midwest and far western Coyotes are small by comparison and resemble our well fed Foxes! Not BS I assure you. Yearling Coyotes are typically 35 to 40 lbs in NY on the Mass border, lots of food so it's sort of like the Brown Bear versus the Grizzly situation... more food equals bigger animals.

I understnad that many animals including coyotes vary in size according to location but here's one from Maryland. You be the judge if it's "about the size of a German Shepherd dog.

Hard to say from a pic how far was the camera ect.

I tend to sympathize with the coyote.

Similar instances occurred a few years ago in Richardson (North Dallas). Coyotes stole pets, sometime while they were still at the end of a leash. Housing developments destroying habitat quicker than game could move away.

Massive uproar... Something must be done!!! Get rid of the coyotes!

The law doesn't (or didn't) allow for transfer of coyotes and relocation so they were trapped to extinction. Hooray for progress, more room for housing developments.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott King:
Given the reported numbers of gun owners in the US I find it odd that when these attacks occur nobody has one handy.

Seriously, I'm not paranoid,

Really!

But the truth is I keep a .45 by the front door, a shotgun under the bed, an AR behind the bedroom door, a .44 in the truck, and a .22 in the shop.

No I don't think for a minute anybody is going to get me, but I do believe in keeping guns handy just in case. If I were in the parents of the little babies shoes I would have had a gun handy to dispatch the coyote. Not "Chase it off,"

When you need a firearm, you generally need it REALLY BAD

Originally posted by Kensco:

....coyotes....were trapped to extinction. Hooray for progress, more room for housing developments.[/QUOTE]

Weeeeellllll,

No.

Coyotes haven't been trapped to extinction anywhere.

I live in brown bear country and that is one of the reasons I keep guns handy. Same scenario as noted above, but in my case if the bear flashes out of the brush I'm going to make an attempt to defend my dog and/or myself with whatever firearm is handiest. No the bear won't be shot or trapped to extinction in Alaska any time soon.

I suppose some would argue that I live in the bears country so I am the invader, just as the folks in the north Dallas neighborhood invaded the coyote's country. I guess I wonder what person or group of persons in particular are there that haven't invaded wildlife habitat to make it human habitat? Undoubtably SF, LA, Chicago and NY were all wildlife habitat at one time. No wildlife repatriation going on there that I know of. Seems like the only salvation for wildlife and their habitat is human birth control.

Back when I lived in S. Ohio, I saw a yote about the size of my lab (70lbs). I have not seen any that large in NC, 35 pounds is about as large as I have seen here. We have so many that one guy I work with has asked me to come take some off his land as he is afraid to let his dogs out.

OK, OK I realize the photo above leaves little to judge size by so here's another. Same trail cam an hour apart. The fox came later and was obviously checking out where the coyote had been. Photos are cropped but NOT resized in any way. Check out the stick in the waterhole for size comparison.

Most importantly, I hope the kid wasn't hurt. But let's remember that this is NJ, where their Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa Jackson cancelled the 2006 bear hunt, despite what her own agency and many experts say is a problem that can most effectively be managed through legal hunting. But she knows best. We had a situation in NY a while back, characterized as a bear "attack", where a black bear smelled one of it's favorite foods (dirty diapers), and did what it would do. Unfortunately, there was a baby in the diapers. The odds of this scenario happening again in NJ increases dramatically with the Commissioner's failure to address population control of it's black bears.

This is also a state that has outlawed the use of any steel-jawed leg-hold traps, where you have to report coyotes taken within 24 hours to the Fish and Wildlife office, and a state with some of the most restrictive laws on ownership of firearms in the country.

How about this one, from their regulations guide: "A valid rifle permit must be possessed while hunting with a .22 caliber rifle. It is unlawful to possess and use .22 caliber rifle except while hunting woodchuck, [no rifle hunting on wildlife management areas (WMAs)] hunting raccoon and opossum with hounds, and dispatching trapped animals other than muskrat. A .22 caliber rifle must be loaded with short cartridges only, except when hunting woodchuck. A .22 caliber rifle need not be plugged, but may be loaded with no more than three shells. No 10-17 year-olds may hunt with any rimfire or centerfire rifle."

How about this: "• A person may not go into the woods or fields with a firearm except during prescribed seasons."

Here's the topper that relates to this post - the daily limit on coyotes, if you can bring yourself to live with all of the restrictions, is two (2) coyotes per day!!

They certainly take some nice deer in NJ, I'm sure there is plenty of great hunting and fishing if you do the homework, and I sympathize with the sportsmen of NJ. Unfortunately, articles like this are likely to increase as the "city dwellers" move blindly into the country and the press sensationalizes these encounters instead of educating the public.

Hello,
I can only trap so many in Jersey my self. Never caught one weighting 70lbs but one broke some cable it was hook too. 40 pounds is the average.
John

Eric,

To say the least I'm dissapointed with the laws you list for us.

In Alaska they let us hunt in National Parks.

No kidding.

I understnad that many animals including coyotes vary in size according to location but here's one from Maryland. You be the judge if it's "about the size of a German Shepherd dog.


"You may think I'm crazy, but I'm just colorful. That's what you become down here, colorful."
Posts: 422 | Registered: 06 March 2006



oupa, Looks like a snare around this ones neck. Good job!

I trapped quite a few coyotes when they were first moving into western Tenn. Memphis Univ was doing a study on them. While they are certainly bigger than the western coyote (and more aggressive), I didn't see any that would come close to 70#. As I remember, 20-40# would be about right. The coyotes I've seen here in WV seem like they would run about the same.
In Okla, they've been hunting and trapping and calling and dogging and airplaning coyotes right along and I think there's probably as many coyotes in Okla as there's ever been. Lots of the cliff dwellers don't know they're there, but they are.

quote:

Originally posted by Kensco:
I tend to sympathize with the coyote.

Similar instances occurred a few years ago in Richardson (North Dallas). Coyotes stole pets, sometime while they were still at the end of a leash. Housing developments destroying habitat quicker than game could move away.

Massive uproar... Something must be done!!! Get rid of the coyotes!

The law doesn't (or didn't) allow for transfer of coyotes and relocation so they were trapped to extinction. Hooray for progress, more room for housing developments.

Actually Coyotes are a relative newcommer to the east coast, because historically there weren't any.

And it seems it took over 150 years after the extermination and extinction of the eastern timber wolf for the coyotes to fill in the gap that created.

Coyotes do a much better job of living near human habitation than wolves.

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Actualy Allen wolves are doing a very fine job living among humans. Here in northern Wisconsin.
As long as one does not hunt and kill them they live quite well.
It was only because they were hunted and trapped any time one could that they couldn't live among humans.
It is false hood put forward by the wakos saying wolves need willderness to live in.
They are expanding very well here the population growing at around 20 percent a year.

I didn't say wolves couldn't live near people, I just
said that Coyotes were better at it and that is PRECISELY what I meant to say.

The wolves managed to "annoy" people to the point where a concerted (and entirely successful) effort was made to exterminate them.

Coyotes have not yet done so....

a couple more attacks on children might.

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