Grampa foils coyote attack

Boston Herald ^ | October 6, 2005 | Lisa Gentes

[billorites]

A Northboro grandfather out for a hike yesterday tackled an attacking coyote to save his grandson's life.

The 76-year-old man was first attacked from behind by the wild animal and then put it in a choke hold when it lunged for his neck.

Police say Arthur Cole's bravery allowed his 4-year-old grandson to run to safety.

The boy then alerted family nearby. The boy told everyone ``a wolf'' got ``Grampy.''

Family members called 911 and they all descended upon the path along the Assabet River a quarter-mile away from the grandfather's home.

``We got there and found the guy on top of the animal,'' firefighter Jamie Desautels said. ``The guy basically saved his grandson.''

Firefighters used an animal snare to restrain the female coyote, which was still biting Cole, fire officials said.

``He stayed pretty calm; he did well,'' said Desautels. Police then killed the coyote.

``We basically choked the animal to death,'' Northboro Police Sgt. James Bruce said, adding they couldn't shoot the animal because Cole's arm was under the coyote's head.

The grandfather suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the 4:30 p.m. attack, according to police.

He was taken to Marlboro Hospital.

The dead coyote was taken to Tufts Veterinary School in Westboro for testing to determine whether it was rabid.

Cole, a lifelong Northboro resident and chairman of the town's trail committee, sustained about eight bites and needed some stitches, family members said.

``He is going to be fine,'' his son, Peter Cole, said.

``It was traumatic but we survived.''

[TruthNtegrity]

I KNEW you were a Horsewoman!

Confirmed, at last.

OTOH, I'm going to get myself a gun in my new state. I have a huge dog run on my new property and I've heard that lots of roamers around here like to raid your vegetable/fruit garden.

I've also heard that there are more than raccoons and deer in the woods, and I wouldn't like to have my pooch eaten for something's dinner.

Okay, that wasn't clear. I grow vegetables and fruits in my dog run, as it's nice and fenced! Keeps the critters out but coyotes are something else. I'll be prepared, soon.......

[Conservative4Ever]

that would be my educated guess...they do make quite a racket when that close, huh. I do miss the late night coyote sing in our area. We are going through a building boom right now and all the empty land is being built upon. Once in a great while we can hear the coyotes move across the landscape late on a summmer night. I miss that.

[brothers4thID]

I heard a story on WTOP news that the coyotes living in D.C.'s Rockcreek park were "singing" at night. Apparently the sound was causing the animals at the National Zoo to get a bit ancy.

[Conservative4Ever]

in its own way it is an eerily beautiful sound. Especially when a pack talks with another lone coyote...sorta calling him in. That happened years ago and we could follow where the lone coyote was tracking by the calling back and forth.

[momf]

I strapped on a pistol when we lived i the desert North of Phoenix. One year we had 3x the normal rain and every living thing out there made the most of it. By that winter we had coyotes everywhere, all the time. My neighbor and I would patrol our area and try to protect our stock that was left - all the chickens, turkeys, and peafowl were gone. So were all rabbits, gophers, etc. in the area. Our calves and colts were endangered. I spotlight a hill beside us, counted 34 coyotes before they all disappeared (temporarily). Next day I tried to get help from the county. They would loan me a trap to catch them, but I had to take them to the nearest county land and release them there...didn't even say oooops when I replied that was 30' from my place and where they were. I mentioned it to a few friends and several nights later the automatic fire from their den areas...no more trouble.

[Crush T Velour]

Massachusetts coyote...worst kind. Very liberal.

Yeah. They're wiley.

[Crush T Velour]

Massachusetts coyote...worst kind. Very liberal.

Yeah. They're wiley.

[Crush T Velour]

Massachusetts coyote...worst kind. Very liberal.

Yeah. They're wiley.

[Decepticon]

...they do make quite a racket when that close, huh.

LOL! Bigtime. I was amazed that this small animal (maybe 40 lbs.) would not back off when confronted by a human (armed, though madam coyote didn't know that) and a 110 lb dog that is nothing but a life support system for a set of jaws. Guess it's that "female and their young" thing. I still get to hear the coyote chorus almost every night, I love it, makes me feel at home.

[Crush T Velour]

stupid freerepubilic comment page

[TASMANIANRED]

Grandpa saves grandson.

Grandson returns the favor.

[Bahbah]

When I was 11 and visiting my cousin on the farm, we would double up on his horse and head through the cornfields. We came upon a BEAR. Now that was a scare.

[RKV]

We used to skin the ones we shot and stretch the hides over the barbed wire fence at the creek. Since coyotes often travel up the draws it is a sort of "Sicilian message" to the rest of the coyote family. "Stay away or end up like your cousin on the fence."

[brytlea]

That sounds like what I remember when my son had to have those shots way back in the 1980s. But they didn't finish the series on him because he had a potential reaction to them. Apparently the critter that bit him was not rabid since he's still alive.
susie

[mmercier]

>> Isn't it pretty unusual for a coyote to attack a human, a large one anyway?

It is unusual. The coyote in this case may have been rabid, or more likely suffering from canine distemper.

As distemper sets in it causes periods of paralysis that can affect the animals ability to feed itself. Sometimes a hungry and viral animal will take an opportunity to feed that it otherwise would not consider.

The leftists in this state that think they are helping the animals by prohibiting trapping to manage populations are causing vast numbers of animals to be decimated by disease.

Rabies wiped out most of the raccoon population on the eastern seaboard after several NE states banned trapping for population control purposes. Rabies and distemper is now decimating the skunk and coyote populations in the region as a direct result of these trapping bans.

[NeonKnight]

I have actually seen coyotees lure a dog into an ambush. A small female coyotee had a dog chasing her. They crossed a little hill and about 2 seconds later the dog came running back over the hill with 3 large coyotees in pursuit.

[mmercier]

Eastern coyotes have interbred with feral dogs, they get quite large in Massachusetts.

A friend of mine on a nearby police force told me they carted of a 90 pound coyote that looked like it was half Rhodesian ridge back. It got hit on Rte 128.

I have one who visits here regularly, I leave him food so he won't eat the wife's cats. Never have seen him, just prints.

[pepperdog]

My Grandmother, who was a teenager in the late 1800's, used to tell of living in a soddie on the Kansas plains and being very fearful of coyotes. She said they would come right up to the soddie at night, it terrified her and her brothers and sisters. She claimed that they frequently killed the dogs back then, as well as chickens and baby farm animals. Later, when she lived in the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, she had acquired a gun. No more coyote trouble.

[Decepticon]

They crossed a little hill and about 2 seconds later the dog came running back over the hill with 3 large coyotees in pursuit.

Very true. I've tried to explain to my dog that if he sees one coyote, that there are probably 5-10 more. He just looks at me with that....."what the heck are you talking about look". Luckily he's big enough that he can survive until the calvary arrives if need be.

[Higgymonster]

I take my dogs out each night in San Diego business parks and they are natural hunters. Mainly rats. They've killed hundreds, if not thousands of them.

During our walks over the last five years we've had two incidents with coyotes, both just after the fires when the coyotes came out of the canyons more frequently.

The first incident, the coyotes sent a female coyotes up out of the canyon three times, trying to lure the dogs "boys" to chase after it. On the 3rd time, the least smart dog (liberal) fell for it. By the time the other dog and I got down into the canyon to rescue him he was getting whooped pretty good by several coyotes of various sizes.

The second incident, we rounded the corner of a building, and there were six coyotes chewing on something. The same least smart dog, charged into the middle of them and grabbed the first one by the neck. The two smaller, and two middle size coyotes, headed across the parking lot and ducked into the canyon. The two large coyotes stayed and fought. Both my dogs weigh right at 60 pounds each and both of the two coyotes that stayed and fought looked very much like German Shepards and I would say outweighed my dogs by 10 to 20 pounds each. When I got there with the other dog the two larger coyotes both retreated into the canyon.

What was weird about this one was that it was pretty close to our house and for the next couple weeks there were coyotes milling around the house and even standing under the street light out in front of the house. It was sort of like a Jaws revenge movie.

There have been lots of other nights where they have tracked us and I generally plot our route each night where we go by motion detector lights and then we can look behind us to see if the lights come on so we can tell if we're being tracked. On at least two or three occasions while out hunting with the boys you can just tell things aren't right. Things feel different. You'll think you saw something to the side or heard something behind you. The dogs will close in on me and not venture very far away. On those nights we'll get in the car and go to a different park.