Coyote! 3-Year-Old Attacked In California, Girl Suffers Bites To The Neck

A coyote attack against a 3-year-old in California has the Orange County community on edge over the incident. It’s said the coyote lunged at the 3-year-old girl out of nowhere and began biting her neck. Fortunately, the story had a happy ending.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, a bison in Yellowstone National Park gored a student when the tourists came too close to the wild animal while trying to take photos.

Lt. Kent Smirl of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the coyote attack occurred around 5:50 p.m. at an Orange County park. A mother and her twin daughters were walking the family’s dog, and when one of the two 3-year-old girls went to retrieve a dog waste baggie, a coyote leaped out of the bushes, jumped on top of her, and grabbed her by the neck.

Ginna McKenna says she was relaxing on her patio when she saw the coyote attack.

“A little girl was screaming and the mother was screaming, so I came running out and there was a coyote in the park. I chased [the coyote] off,” McKenna said, according to CBS. “They were scared.”

After the attack by the coyote, the 3-year-old girl was taken to the hospital for the bite on her neck. Smirl says the she has already been treated and released, although he would not disclose the identify of the mother or the child. He did say the coyote’s bite was superficial, since the skin was not punctured and the young girl only suffered from bruising.

Days later, animal control officers are still hunting for the coyote and 11-year-old Emma Aguilar says she and her father might have spotted it while walking the park with her father.

“One started chasing me and my dad,” she said, according to the Orange County Register. “It was about five feet in front of us. It was growling. My dad got a rock and threw it at him, chased him away. My dad always sees packs of them. I’m pretty scared, because I have a 2-year-old sister, and we’re outside all the time.”

David Andersen also had a coyote encounter. His 3-year-old son was riding his Big Wheel in a park when a coyote suddenly appeared within five feet, and he says it was apparent the “coyote wasn’t scared of people.” Anderson says he froze, not knowing what to do, but then a car honked its horn and scared the coyote off.

Another local resident named Ann Laughlin thinks the coyote attack on the 3-year-old girl might be tied to her own incident.

“The coyote wanted my puppy so I put my puppy on my shoulder,” she said. “I screamed really loud but the coyote was not fearful.”

The Irvine Animal Services Division’s spokeswoman, Farrah Emami, said it is very rare to hear about a coyote attack, but she says it’s more likely if people feed them or leave pet food outside.

“When that happens we enable them with a food source,” he added. “It’s easier them for them to get food than to catch food in the wild.”

The National Park Service website notes that “coyotes quickly learn bad habits like roadside begging. This may lead to aggressive behavior toward humans. Never approach or feed a begging coyote.” In order to survive a coyote attack, Emami recommends making yourself appear larger and yell to scare off the coyote.

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