Police on trail of the Stamford coyote

STAMFORD — Animal Control officer Tilford Cobb said the Police Department was waiting Friday to get a permit to trap an aggressive coyote that reportedly killed a pet dog in the Cove and has scared human residents of the neighborhood.

Cobb said he hoped that the trapper, from a nearby community, could soon get to work. It was possible, Cobb said, that traps would be out as early as Friday afternoon.

Police have put out a warning about the coyote, which has been described as a large animal that does not fear humans. It reportedly killed a pet dog in the neighborhood, and has followed close behind people, police have said.

Cobb, who has chased him in the past,

estimated that he weighs in at about 45 pounds.

Earlier in the week, Lt. Nick Montagnese said police believed they were hot on its trail when they began to get resident reports of a large roaming coyote. The calls began coming in Wednesday morning from Midland Avenue then Orange Street followed by another sighting on Myrtle Avenue.

Early in the afternoon police surrounded an animal on Halloween Boulevard that animal control officers were then able to snare. But the animal turned out to be a lost Shiloh Shepherd named Emma, who had runaway from her dog sitter in Pound Ridge, N.Y. on Oct. 30, he said.

“It was living on the street for over a month,” Montagnese said.

So far, no one has found the big coyote.

Cobb said that as many as three coyotes may be living in the Cove. He said he saw a coyote pass through the bird sanctuary behind Terry Conners Ice Rink on Friday, but he wasn’t sure if it was the coyote they are looking for.

He said plans were set for the trapper to work in Stamford.

“You have to learn the animal’s behavior before you put the traps up,” he said. “We do have paths that it takes. We know where those paths are.”

For now, he said people in the Cove should keep their pets inside and not antagonize a coyote if they see one, he said.

“People need to know that coyotes are here and they are here to stay,” Cobb said. “For the most part they are not problems and we have them all over the city. But this one has targeted pets and that is why we went to capture this one.”