U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On Friday, December 2, 2022, a father, Ariel Eliyahuo, and his two-year-old daughter returned to their Woodland Hills home in Los Angeles, California. An average-sized coyote can be seen approaching the two-year-old. It knocks the child down, then attempts to drag the girl off by her legs. Only the quick action of her father, who ran at the coyote, yelling, drove off the animal. The coyote did not leave the area until the father threw a water bottle at it.
The action fits very well as a predatory attack. Young children are reasonably close to the size of prey that a coyote would feel capable of taking down. As coyotes become comfortable with humans and gain experience that humans are not a danger to them, they are much more likely to “test” small humans as potential prey. The immigrant family is from Israel and has lived in the area for three years.
For generations, coyotes were considered vermin and shot at or killed when the opportunity presented. This is a common reason farmers and ranchers would keep a rifle handy. Not long ago seeing a rifle rack in a truck was a common thing, but that has been greatly reduced in California by their draconic gun control laws.
California is one of only five states which do not have the protection of the right to keep and bear arms in the state constitution. In the 1960s the state started making it harder and harder to bear arms. It is very difficult to be able to legally carry firearms anywhere in the state, including in rural areas.
During the same period, tolerance of predators has climbed with the influence of urban-centered media, with Disney taking the lead. Urban media has promoted anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is a way of thinking of animals as furry humans. As the hunting of coyotes has decreased, the fear of humans has also decreased, resulting in increasing numbers of coyote attacks. The attack on the two-year-old in Woodland Hills was the seventh attack on a human by coyotes in Los Angeles this year. From ktla.com:
This year, there have been seven recorded coyote attacks on people throughout the Los Angeles area.
Opinion:
To prevent attacks on humans, there is a time-proven solution. When coyotes become too comfortable around humans, kill the coyotes. Other coyote pack members quickly learn the lesson: humans are dangerous. Avoid them.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
But they are just friendly furry forest critters doing what friendly furry forest critters do.
By the way I kill every coyote I get a chance at.
Shame to kill all of them in an urban environment. Better to train them to fear humans and only kill those which do not. I used to see multiple coyotes every day on my morning walk. They never bothered us. Then I believe the city had an extermination program and the yotes disappeared. Few months later I started seeing rats all over, even in our yard. Fast forward a bit (6mo to a year) and yotes started coming back. Those yotes had so many rats to eat that they over bred and over populated the area. Prey and predator populations… Read more »
Horrible! I love to watch them with their antics
….through my thermal scope as I hold my breath and squeeeeze….
I encourage all you standard Deer, small game, waterfowl hunters to try something new – get out there and hunt predators like Coyotes/Bobcats/Fox. Trapping is one thing – bringing them in using distress calls is another. Most states you can hunt year round, no limit. In some cases, I was lucky enough in my area to have feral hogs wander by – added some meat to the table. Other counties in some parts of the country are adding bounties to reduce the population of coyotes due to predation of livestock, pets etc..I’ve been predator hunting in between Deer – Turkey… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more Steve. Living in the Soviet of Washington we don’t have feral pigs, Bobcats are here, and the only rules about hunting them RIGHT NOW, more on that in a minute, no dogs can be used and the season is open from September 1st to March 15th. We have a very large Cougar population though, and no you can’t use dogs or bait for them either, even though we’ve had a Cougar kill an adult mountain biker recently near Seattle. We have an abundance of Coyotes and I’m building out an AR 15 for a Coyote/Hog rifle.… Read more »
That was disturbing to see. That coyote needs to be destroyed. It’s just going to keep performing these actions until then.
Where I’m at now, there are lots of coyotes, fox, black bears, the occasional cougar, and even bald eagles. The eagles occasionally get a free meal when there’s roadkill out on the highway, and my last bear encounter involved my front bumper – the Eagles got to eat in the morning…
My fianceѐ wants to get guinea hens, and is leaving to me the challenge of an enclosure that will keep out all the predators. I’m pricing rebar and welding rods…..
My brother lives in Sun City, outside of Phoenix, where coyotes abound. He was telling me that they found a den on one of the golf courses with over 50 pet collars in it. But the locals all say that the coyotes were here first and blame the pet owners. That attitude probably holds until their little Fluffy disappears. Coyotes in the wild don’t bother me, coyotes in urban and suburban areas do. They are definitely not an endangered species.
More because of bobcats in the neighborhood than because of coyotes – but I used to always send my pyr (100lb) out with my wife’s little dog (10lb). Bug is too brave for her own good – though maybe she’s just a better judge of her risks than I expect.
Either predator is just looking for a little easy snack rather than a fight. Now my pyr is gone, I have to keep an eye on the little one. As pet owner, it’s our job to protect them – no fault to natural risks such as coyotes, eagles or snakes.
Exactly! Ever see a Safeway, Kroger or QFC 2 legged Cougar in Washington State? It’s not something you can unsee or forget.
The two-legged predatory vermin can be taught the same lesson with the same tools.
Needs moar wolves… and griz. I guess they’re working on that now.
Spot on analysis Mr. Weingarten. I also include Hanna-Barbera along with Disney because they created Yogi Bear and Boo Boo. I have been saying this to family and friends for years and the glassy eyed look I get or many just roll their eyes when they hear me say this has been huge. I don’t think a single person has ever said they agree?! Your article validates my opinion. In the State of Washington the agency that is in charge of fish and wildlife is rife with people suffering with anthropomorphism. A place where people with that kind of emotional… Read more »