In a woman’s backyard, in the Mississippi Gulf, a coyote attacked the lady’s Maine Coon cat and had his head in its mouth while she was in the backyard at the same time. The coyote are confident animals and it seems well urbanised in their mentality.
The lady, Virginia Simmons, ran towards the coyote screaming. The coyote released her 20 pound Maine Coon, Sylvester, who then ran away. He has not been seen since. The coyote ran off into a wood nearby, turned and stared at Simmons while she threw rocks at it.
This happened last Saturday, a week ago now, and things look fairly bleak. Simmons is worried that the coyote has attacked her cat again and this time successfully.
It is known that coyotes have a high success rate in attacks on domestic, stray and feral cats but cats do escape from coyote attacks.
The coyote is smart, difficult to catch, and this one has been in the area for a while preying on cats. A neighbour lost a mother and her two kittens. Another large cat has also disappeared recently.
Apparently in Mississippi Gulf it is legal to shoot a coyote. I presume that is under certain stipulated situations and conditions.
Simmons has informed the police who informed animal control. The police chief says that occasionally a coyote will pass through the area and stay a while. There are large woods in the area.
For non-Americans, coyote attacks are one reason why a large percentage of Americans keep their cats permanently inside. There are more predators of cats in America than in the UK for instance. The coyote is perhaps the most dangerous predator of outside cats.
Search result on PoC for “coyote”.
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