Coyotes live with us on our hills, in our neighborhoods, and may visit our yards.
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| ......"Not picky, I'll eat pets, ...... small children and you." . |
This is the second time this March that a poodle has been attacked by coyotes."On Saturday, March 10, at 5p.m., a 15-pound dog was seized, stunned and dragged away by two full-size coyotes at Mussel Rock Park. The owner of the poodle was unable to find his pet; he is certain his dog was killed by the attack. The attack occurred during daylight on the hilly path leading to the paragliders' airfield.
The area of the attack was near rabbit warrens, and it is thought that the dog may have looked like a rabbit in size and color. The Peninsula Humane Society mentioned a similar incident in which a small poodle was attacked by coyotes, but was successfully retrieved.
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| Mussel Rock, north Pacifica/Daly City |
The low rainfall this winter has brought the rather unusual sighting in February of a pack of 5 coyotes out together at 4 p.m. around the same site, close to the swamp where they drink water below the copse of willow trees, in full view of hikers, paragliders and pet dogs. Dog owners are urged to keep their dogs in view all the time while at Mussel Rock near to the gate, paths and swamp area."
Reference:- Coyotes in our San Mateo Neighborhoods, .Coyotes in San Mateo County Park Lands. Note: Helen Nicely also posted the article on Pacifica Patch, 3/12/12.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
8 comments:
Thanks for this post. I'm a Pacifica resident and frequent Mussel Rock visitor. I recently have been seen the coyotes there and noticed they seem to be protecting a den near the road (About 200yds from the gate). I usually have my dog off leash, a husky, but my dog went and attacked the coyote the other day. They both parted ways quickly, but I couldn't help wondering how often the poor coyotes are getting harassed by larger dogs going after them.
This prompted me to post a sign warning people to keep their dogs on leash at least for the first 200 yds.
Today there was a group of people who ignored the sign. Their large dogs went toward the den. I was just coming out from surfing, and asked that they leash their dog. I had my own dog with me, on leash. They got all defensive and mad at me for calling them on it.
Do you know who has jurisdiction over Mussel Rock? Any idea whether it is an off-leash park or not? Of course I much prefer it be off-leash, but the lack of respect of some makes that tough. The poor coyotes are minding their own business in what must already be a hard life, and then irresponsible dog owners let their "cute" dogs go and attack the coyotes (like mine did). I felt awful when my dog went after it, but it could as well have just been killed by the coyotes as in the story here.
Would appreciate learning the regs in the park.
Thanks for spreading the story.
DG
I agree. I also have seen coyotes and now always keep my dogs leashed, even though I used to be a big no-leash dog walker. Trust me, coyotes are out and about, foxes too.
The same pack killed my 20# mix dog 3 days ago. My bigger dog was not attacked, rather than protecting the coyotes from big dogs it is time to protect small dogs from this growing pack. I also want to know who has jurisdiction over this place.
Last Saturday 24 November, 2012 we lost our 15 month old dog Cassi to coyotes in that exact spot.My wife Elena literally saw the animal in the jaws of one of the coyotes. We had walked dogs off leash there for 9 years without incident. If we had read this blog post earlier,Cassi would still be alive.
What is more concerning is what happened after Cassi was taken.To coyotes came up to Elena and our 60 lb dog Copernicus. Copernicus barked. Elena started throwing rocks. This did not scare the coyotes off. Elena had to swing her heavy Canon camera at the coyotes.A $445.00 lens was destroyed in the meelee. 4 coyotes could have attacked Elena and killed her.A bite would have caused Elena to have a painful series of rabies shots. One day these animals are going to attack and kill a child. By the way, the Daly City Police Department has jurisdiction there.
A pack of coyotes attacked our
15 lb dog today.My teenage daughter was walking our dog around 4pm when a pack of 5 coyotes begun to stalk my daughter,her friend and the 2 small dogs they were walking. One of the coyotes grabbed one of the dogs by the neck. My daughter then proceeded to pick up a large orange cone , screaming at the top of her lungs and managed to scare off 4 coyotes !
This is VERY scary and my daughter could have been hurt or killed not just our dog.
Please be careful !
Where did this happen?
The BIGGEST problem at Mussle Rock is NOT the Coyotes (they are part of the natural enviorment; they keep the mice & rats under control) the REAL problem is the 'feral Cat" station. As a person that worked at the S.F Zoos "Animal Resorce Center" handling many wild Species ..i can tell you that feeding the "feral Cats" is a VERY dangerous idea. It is causing the Coyotes to become "imprinted" (assoiciating the SMELL of FOOD with Humans); this in turn makes the Coyotes NOT have the NATURAL fear they would normaly have with Human contact. This is a HUGE problem since it puts us , our Children & our Pets in REAL danger.. i have tried to reason with these People that insist on feeding these poor abuse "feral Cats" and i have been met with complete rudness and lack of logical reason... The People feeding the 'feral Cats" are directly resposible for MOST aggresive behavior the Coyotes may be developing.. This is SO wrong on so many levels. In Austrailia "feral Cats" became suce a problem (wiping out HUGE populations of Birds & Reptiles) that the governmet started paying hunters to shoot them. This is a horribe idea; so then the People that love the Cats got together and bought closed enclosures that kept the wild Cats in and the Wildlife out.. this has worked very well. So i am saying WE NEED to come up with a better idea than these filty feeding stations that are just litter in reality causing the sperad of illness like Feline Lukemia etc..(which by the way many of these Cat borne illness's get into Ocean Waters and spread into Sea Lions , Porpoise etc..). There are also several feeding stations right on some of the Beaches around here...Can we PLEASE fix this before it is TOO late...eileen carey
Thanks for all these comments about Mussel Rock. Here is an update on the coyote situation, there. On February 11, 2013, a small <20 pound dog was approached by a coyote in day light, and ran off with it. This dog was never found alive.
Since then, I have worked with a Park Ranger and a wildlife ecologist, both from the GGNRA National Park Service. Ranger Lewis was very concerned about the situtation. She showed me a Web site that delineates the boundaries of GGNRA and Daly City. www.avenza.com or www.pdf-maps.com. This shows the paths and beach area are the GGNRA jurisdiction, while the wilderness areas are Daly City jurisdiction. Apparently, the entire Mussel Rock park is leash-only!! I asked for signage regarding dangers of coyotes to pets & humans, and got it. If your dog or you are attacked, you must report the "who, where, what and when" to this site asap: http://www.nps.gov/goga/contacts.htm. It is read at the highest level, so you will get action.
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