Maybe a first

[Bird]

I wonder if pepper spray would work well on coyotes? It works for dogs when bike riding. Bear spray is just strong pepper spray. Perhaps people should be encouraged to carry it when hiking.

Anyhow, sad story for the woman and her family.

Maybe the pepper spray works sometimes. I had occasion to use it on 2 dogs at different times and found that all it did was make them mad. Of course, if you're bike riding, the dogs are probably just chasing the bike for fun, and when I was a kid we used to carry a water pistol loaded with ammonia for that.

 

[dmccarty]

Pepper spray and tear gas are used by law enforcement in non life threatening situations. A bear/coyote/bad critter trying to bite me seems like a deadly force issue. But it just may be me.

Course some TBNers have no choice but to use pepper spray or tear gas and some can't even use it at all.

It is hardly optimal when something is trying to kill you but better than nothing.

Later,
Dan

 

[Bird]

Dan, quite a number of folks go walking in our neighborhood; some with their dogs on a leash, some with no dog. I sometimes go for a walk in the neighborhood myself, and sometimes let our little Chihuahua go along on a leash. So far, I've had no problem with dogs myself, but there are some Great Danes, German Shepherds, and even some Pit Bulls in the neighborhood. So when I go out in the neighborhood, I carry my Bubba Stik which is a bit heavier than most walking canes. I don't think there are many dogs who wouldn't respect that when they're not protecting their own property, so I'd be very surprised if that wasn't enough to protect our Chihuahua and myself. However, I share your sentiments about a critter trying to bite me, so I also usually have a .38 in my pocket.

 

[2manyrocks]

There has been some discussion of this story elsewhere. Some of the folks are wondering if these are pure coyotes or were interbred with dogs that made them not fear humans. I hear coyotes around us, but rarely see them because they avoid us, and I haven't seen them in packs. It's terrible that this 19 year old young woman had this happen.

 

[NSBound]

There has been some discussion of this story elsewhere. Some of the folks are wondering if these are pure coyotes or were interbred with dogs that made them not fear humans....

The story today was speculating that the local coyote population has either bbred with dogs, as you say, or also possibly with wolves........

 

[Tig]

There was another instance of what was believed to be a man killed by wolves in Saskatchewan??? a few years ago.

It was a Waterloo University student on a co-op assignment in Alberta.
The wolves were around every evening as he returned from work. One evening they attacked.
He was in the same year of engineering as my son at Waterloo.

 

[dmccarty]

... I carry my Bubba Stik which is a bit heavier than most walking canes. I don't think there are many dogs who wouldn't respect that when they're not protecting their own property, so I'd be very surprised if that wasn't enough to protect our Chihuahua and myself. However, I share your sentiments about a critter trying to bite me, so I also usually have a .38 in my pocket.

I think that Bubba Stik would work real well against two and four legged critters! And it looks good!

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

It was a Waterloo University student on a co-op assignment in Alberta.
The wolves were around every evening as he returned from work. One evening they attacked.
He was in the same year of engineering as my son at Waterloo.

I do not ever remember hearing about this so I had to go look it up. Kenton Joel Carnegie wolf attack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It certainly sounded like a pack of wolves kill the man. Lots of controversy about the whole incident but it sounded like wolves had become habituated to people and linking people to food. The Coop went out alone at dusk and several wolves attacked, killed, and ate him. Some argue a bear did it but no bear tracks and while there is arguing about the man's wounds they do not sound much like a bear attack.

While people where arguing how much of the man had been eaten compared to what people said at the time it seems that a single bear could not have eaten as much of the man in the time available but that 3-4 wolves could.

Later,
Dan

 

[Tig]

Thanks for the link Dan. That's a very complete article. This is the first time I have ever actually read about the incident. Seems I got some details wrong.

 

[dmccarty]

Thanks for the link Dan. That's a very complete article. This is the first time I have ever actually read about the incident. Seems I got some details wrong.

Not sure which part you got wrong. What they think happened was pretty gruesome. Sounded like the wolves attacked, injured him, waited for him to bleed out and weaken and then went it to kill and feed. They followed the blood trail and could see what was going on. He fought back but without a weapon he was pretty much on the wrong end of the food chain.

Later,
Dan