Coyotes attack, kill dog in Eagan

A woman in Eagan could only watch helplessly as coyotes attacked and killed her dog in her backyard.

Now police are warning neighbors about the deadly attack and asking people to keep a close eye on their pets.

"I wish we could reverse it and change it because Callie was a cute little dog," said Julie Paulsen, who lives in the neighborhood and owns two dogs.

The 15-pound Miniature Pinscher died after coyotes attacked her.

"I'm really sad for them and I'm concerned that we have a wild animal kind of living in our neighborhood," said Lynn Stein, a neighbor.

Stein said she heard her neighbor's screams, but didn't see the coyotes that killed her neighbor’s dog.

"As a mother it is concerning," Stein said.

Coyotes have never killed a person in Minnesota and animal control officers say this is the first deadly attack on a dog in several years, but they say coyotes aren't unusual in Eagan.

"We're seeing more and more of them," said Eagan Animal Control Officer Karen Grimm.

Coyotes are most commonly found around wooded areas. One coyote was spotted about five miles away from the neighborhood where the dog was attacked, where the woods come right up to a busy highway.

"We're kind of moving into their territory," Grimm said.

Officers say people shouldn't be surprised to see coyotes close to home, but they should be extra careful with pets, especially after last week's attack.

"We do change our nighttime routine," Paulsen said. "The dogs go out front. They don't go out back."

Might be time to thin out that yote population.

saltfisher1 wrote:

Might be time to thin out that yote population.

That's exactly what I was thinking, Greg. However; it is going to be hard to thin them out within the city limits though. Time to get the DNR involved and have them set some leg/live traps.

I didn't know that when i posted this that this weekend was the big coyote hunt around here, man the people were out thick looking and driving the woods and fields for the yotes. I will try and see what i can find out about how well they did this year, they generally do pretty good.