Here's another:
Coyote eats woman’s Yorkshire terrier
By Sarah Viren
The Daily News
Published November 9, 2005
FRIENDSWOOD — Linda Samson knew something was wrong when Sally didn’t come back after 15 minutes.
Her seven-pound Yorkshire terrier always stayed close to the house. She was just that kind of dog.
“Usually when we clap our hands she comes running and she has tags on and you can hear her when she is running,” Samson recalled. “This time we couldn’t hear the tags, and my husband said, ‘Linda, the coyotes have got her.’”
Along Cowards Creek in Friendswood, where the couple lives, coyotes are a problem.
They were blamed for killing at least one dog last year, a Yorkshire terrier just down the street from the Samsons. The year before that, a cat was taken by coyotes, according to police department reports.
“It’s been going on for years,” Linda Samson said. “This year, I think mine is the first.”
The animal control department in Friendswood traps and euthanizes coyotes, said Officer Lisa Price, a police spokeswoman.
But that hasn’t solved problem. In fact, things may get worse before they get better.
“It’s a twofold problem,” said game warden Fred Ruiz of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s office in Galveston County. “One, you have areas where new housing developments have exploded where 10 or five years ago there was nothing there. So humans have somewhat infringed upon their habitats, and at the same time (the coyote) populations have exploded.”
Most cities in the county have trapping programs for coyotes, Ruiz said, but his department has nothing similar statewide.
People like the Samsons, however, want a solution now.
After Sally went missing Friday night, the couple and their 21-year-old son stayed out until 11:30 p.m. looking for her.
The next day, when the sun came up, they found the dog’s body about 10 feet into the woods by the creek.
“I started screaming,” Linda Samson said. “I was hysterical. The way she died — they just ripped her apart.”
Even the dog tag was gone. And now Samson said she keeps thinking: What if it was a child?
That is possible, but not likely, Ruiz said. Coyotes are leery of humans and will usually stay clear of children if an adult is around.
But that doesn’t mean residents shouldn’t take precautions. Never corner a coyote, he said, and don’t approach a mother when she is with her young.
Price said her department recently mailed a release called “Living with Coyotes in Friendswood” with tips about how to avoid the wild animals.
Some suggestions: secure garbage cans, fence back yards, install motion detection lights, keep pets inside at night and clean extra brush and weeds from near your house.
Around this time of year, she said, that’s particularly important. As the weather gets colder, the wild animals run out of food sources in their natural habitats. So they creep into people’s yards — looking for their next meal.
http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?...7ad3b2ada1f97d