Victim fights coyote off with pitchfork, aided by donkey

EAST HADDAM — A local woman is being treated preemptively for possible exposure to rabies after she fended off a coyote — with the help of her donkey — and possibly came in contact with its saliva during two incidents on the same day last week, state officials said.

State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Wildlife Division staff were contacted recently by an East Haddam resident who described being attacked by the wild animal Oct. 22, according to Media Relations Manager Will Healy.

The woman told DEEP officials she “fought the animal off with a pitchfork, and that it bit her boot before it was kicked by her donkey,” Healy said.

She contacted East Haddam Animal Control Officer Michael P. Olzacki for assistance. The victim said “the coyote attacked her later the same day while she was driving in her car

near her home, and that she attempted to hit the animal, but it ran off,” Healy said.

The victim notified neighbors, who allegedly also encountered a coyote exhibiting similarly aggressive behavior, Healy said. The woman said they came over to her property, even

tually located the coyote, and shot and killed it.

The animal control officer disposed of the carcass, with no rabies testing recommended, Healy said.

The victim said, although she was not bitten or scratched, she had possible exposure to the coyote’s saliva while fighting it off.

She is undergoing postexposure rabies treatments as a precaution.

Olzacki said it is not at all uncommon for donkeys to defend themselves in that way. In fact, he said, llamas behave in the same way, which is why people keep them penned with their livestock.

Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images A coyote such as this one was shot and killed by neighbors of an East Haddam woman who had been attacked twice in one day by the animal.