I don’t have a politically correct answer to this...I am old enough to remember when coyote trappers were popular and the government had a coyote elimination program and actually paid people to hunt and poison coyotes. From my observations coyotes in small numbers are much better behaved.
They are called “wild animals” for a reason-they are not pets, and because people move into their areas and feed them, they lose their natural fear of humans. If you kill all the predators in a rural area, soon that area will be overrun with nasty pests-mostly rodents-proper natural balance is a must.
While no creature is safe in too-large numbers, it sounds like these hikers were in the animals’ territory, not on a city street. The trail/forest is not a dog park-the dog is an attractant for predators-leave the dog at home.
In the woods that border my property, there are coyotes, at least one mountain lion, big feral hogs (most dangerous of all) and the odd pack of abandoned dogs. I do not hike after dusk, and I do not take my dog on the hiking trail, ever-I do not want her eaten.
I was taught if you smell, hear or see tracks of a predator, make noise and look large, don’t turn your back, get the hell off that trail NOW, and do not run. I hike nearly every day, and I follow that advice.
Sometimes I hike with a firearm, depending on how far onto the deep woods I intend to go, and I always carry a walking stick and make lots of noise so that I don’t act like a prey animal-I’m aware that I live in the animals’ dining room, and show the proper caution.
I recall back in the 50's there was a movement to eliminate the evil coyotes that were killing the nice bunny rabbits and bambis and an occasional farmer's sheep.
A few years after the government coyote elimination program that paid people to hunt and poison coyotes we had an explosion of rodents and the diseases they carried. After a number of useless attempts at programs, nature righted itself by increasing the number of predators to offset the number of varmints.