Coyotes blamed for pet killings across the metro
MUSTANG — On New Year’s Eve, well after dark, a 10-year-old beagle named Ginger walked outside to take care of her business in Edward Koonce’s backyard.
The yard, which is about 100 feet wide and 200 feet deep, is surrounded by a 4-foot-tall chain link fence, Koonce said.
Ginger, a pet belonging to visiting family members from Georgia, didn’t come back. When she didn’t appear at the back door as usual, and Koonce’s visiting stepson, Jim Knauff, 61, of Savannah, Georgia, went out to look for her.
He found Ginger dead. It looked like she’d been dragged around the yard, Koonce said. Koonce called police and a Mustang police officer, who was raised in the country, said it looked like a coyote attack. There were no other signs of the attackers.
Coyotes generally steer clear of humans, and attacks on people are rare.
Koonce, 84, lives in the Lakehoma housing addition and has lived in Mustang since 1980, near State Highway 152 and Clear Springs Road. Koonce said he has never heard of coyotes being a problem until a string of recent attacks.
Other attacks at Lakehoma
In late January, another Lakehoma resident, Bobbie Metheny let her two pet schnauzers out back. Metheny has lived in Mustang since 1970, when there were more wheat fields than housing additions, and she had never had trouble with coyotes.
Her dogs, Molly and Abby, were outside at dusk when she saw what looked like a coyote jumping over the fence, running to get away.
Molly, who weighs about 30 pounds, had been attacked. She had puncture wounds that were stitched up at a veterinarian’s office, and the dog is making a full recovery, Metheny said.
Metheny said she hears coyotes howling at night often, but she doesn’t want them around any more.
“I’d like to get rid of them,” Metheny said. “I don’t care if you kill them.”
Another neighbor, James Moore, 45, who has lived in the Lakehoma addition for 14 years in a home built in the 1970s, said he lost one of his dogs on Feb. 1.
That morning, his wife, Brandie Moore, let the dogs, Molly and Mozey, out at 5:30 a.m. Molly is a 40-pound female and Mosey was a 10-yearold male, mixed-breed smaller dog that weighed about 15 pounds.
About 15 minutes after letting the dogs out, Brandie Moore opened the back door and Molly came in but Mosey didn’t. Then she saw Mosey in a dark part of the backyard, curled into a ball.
“His guts were ripped open,” James Moore said. “He was torn up pretty good.”
The Moores have a 4-foot-tall chain link fence around a quarter acre, but they didn’t hear the attack. They didn’t even hear Mozey bark, James Moore said.
He said he doesn’t let Molly go out during dark hours now unless he goes with her.
“It is just pretty odd. I’ve never witnessed anything like this,” James Moore said.
‘We are going to see more of them’
In neighboring Oklahoma City, a city that covers 620 square miles and vast areas of undeveloped or semirural areas where new housing additions are built from the outskirts in Canadian County to the southeast fringes of the city limits in Cleveland County, coyotes are common native animals.
Oklahoma City Animal Control Department has not had any reports of coyotes killing pets this year, said Lyne Huffman, a field supervisor for the department.
As the city grows, more people encounter coyotes, she said.
“The terrible part is we are moving more and more into their environment,” Huffman said. “As more homes are built and there is more development, we are going to see more of them.”
Jon Gary, Oklahoma City superintendent of Animal Welfare, said coyotes are common in central Oklahoma, including city areas. In the 19 years he’s worked here, he has never heard of a coyote biting a person. But there have been occasional attacks on a small pets or chickens.
“Coyotes are going to avoid people. If they have an option to get away, they will,” Gary said. “We see coyotes regularly.”
He said there have been times a person in Oklahoma City has been bitten by a skunk, opossum or raccoon, but those cases are usually when someone is trying to catch such a critter.
Koonce said there have been several other reports in recent weeks of missing small dogs from Lakehoma, including a Chihuahua another resident reported missing on Feb. 13.
Adaptable and can survive
Scott Alls, assistant state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Oklahoma City, said coyotes are frequently trapped or shot in more rural areas around ranches and farms. But in a housing addition, live traps, or cage traps, can be set out.
People can also use electric wire fencing around their property to keep coyotes out.
Alls said he has been working with city of Mustang to place a trap in the area baited with raw meat or pet food.
“There is a good chance this thing has been eating dog food off of porches,” Alls said.
Alls said the coyote is an adaptable animal, and can thrive in suburban or even urban areas. He said he has trapped coyotes near the Oklahoma City Zoo and all around the Oklahoma City area.
At Lakehoma, there may possibly be a pair of coyotes or could be just one.
If a coyote is caught, it will be euthanized. He said he has never heard of a coyote attacking a person, but they can lose their fear of people and be aggressive.
On New Year’s Day, Koonce and stepson Knauff dug a grave for Ginger near a shed and placed her remains in it, covering her with her favorite blanket before filling it in with dirt and placing a rock on top of it.
Now Koonce doesn’t go outside at night without a flashlight.
“The attack was so sudden and unexpected that it was shocking to us,” he said. “We had no thought of such a thing happening. After all, we thought she was safe in our fenced yard, and we had not heard of any attacks.”
Knauff’s family, back home in Georgia, is still grieving over the loss of the pet, he said.
“Pets are family members too, and losing one in this terrible manner is heartbreaking,” Knauff said.