A Cobb County father says a coyote attacked his family dog just feet away from his 3 and 5-year-old daughters.
Ethan Wall says his family never feared living near wildlife in their neighborhood near the Kennesaw National Battlefield Park until the attack on Monday.
The skirmish, which happened in the middle of the afternoon, left their 8-year-old dog with serious injuries and stitches covering eight spots on his body.
“I mean we were sitting right here and it happened right down there at the creek and it was after school and we were right here playing,” said mother Courtenay Wall.
She says that’s when Roscoe and the coyote came face-to-face.
“Then sure enough he really did get injured, had eight different spots of stitches,” she said.
They rushed Roscoe to the vet, where they tended to his many injuries and put him in a cone collar until they heal.
The coyotes’ dens are only a few hundred yards behind their house. Wall says they can hear them howling at night, but the attack on Roscoe has made them unwelcome neighbors.
“My 3-year-old is half the weight and half the size of the dog and it could have been her. If he was angry or hungry we don't know what would have happened. It could have been someone else,” Courtenay Wall said.
The coyote-human conflict is nothing new in the metro. We've done many stories on coyotes living uncomfortably close to residents who say cats, in particular, seem to disappear from the neighborhoods.
Experts say mostly coyotes will avoid humans, but when problems arise relocating the coyotes is about the only option.
“I think for the whole neighborhood, we've got a lot of young kids in here, I think more and more people have kids in here and would want to help,” Ethan Wall said.
