North Carolina Man Shoots And Kills Coyote To Protect His Daughter And Dog
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 10 months ago
From reader Fred Tippens, WSOCTV.
ORANGE COUNTY, N.C. – A North Carolina man said he shot and killed a coyote after it came dangerously close to his 6-year-old daughter and dog.
Ian Vigus said that shortly after he came home from work in Orange County, he heard his dog barking near where his daughter was playing.
Vigus said his dog was spooked by a coyote, so he took both the dog and his daughter inside and grabbed his rifle.
“As he started to lope off, I shot him and killed him,” Vigus said. “I just wanted to protect my family and protect my livestock.”
Orange County officials said there have been several recent reports of coyotes in the area.
Earlier this week in Huntersville, a family came face-to-face with a coyote that officials said was rabid.
In a video that the Schroter family recorded of the encounter, the coyote can be seen snarling at them.
More … tests confirm that Coyote that attacked Huntersville family’s car was rabid.
As I mentioned before, I’ve had them come trotting down the road at me in my neighborhood. I wonder whether this was a Coyote or a Coywolf. Many of what people take for Coyotes are actually Coywolves.
Via Knuckledraggin’, this is a good video about the Coywolf, but I found that it was too focused on the Northeast and Canada, as if the Coywolf was a Canadian invention and remains in the Northeast. They also make the mistake of assuming that the Coywolf is just Wolf and Coyote, but it’s clear that it’s more complicated than that.
Coyotes have lived in the East since the 1930s, and recent genetic tests have shown they are actually a mixture of coyote, wolf and dog …
The Eastern coyote is one of 19 subspecies of coyote, which are adaptable predators that live everywhere from the streets of Los Angeles to Florida swamps.
The Eastern subspecies, which ranges as far west as Ohio, is thought to have migrated to the Northeast some 80 years ago, taking over the range occupied by wolves and interbreeding with the larger animals.
They no longer overlap with wolves, which are long gone from the East save for the very rare red wolf, but they remain eight to 25 percent wolf genetically, said Roland Kays, a leading coyote biologist with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
They are also about eight to 11 percent dog due to past interbreeding with feral dogs, he said.
The point of all of this is that we have a new breed of very adaptable, very smart canine in the land, one that isn’t scared of humans, may be rabid, and knows how to survive virtually anywhere.
Do you carry guns with you? I do. If threatened, you can’t shoot them if you don’t carry guns.
On February 13, 2018 at 7:41 am, Unclezip said:
Morons in my town, which is surrounded by thousands of acres of farmland, warn to call authorities sos’ they can send out a state licensed “trapper”. I told them to pound sand. The Three S rule works for me. Kind of like calling 911 while the burgler is beating the shit out of you.
On February 13, 2018 at 8:02 am, bob sykes said:
The eastern coyote’s DNA is about 2/3 western coyote, 1/4 (Canadian) wolf and 1/10 large dog. Some conservationists have proposed that the eastern coyote be classified as a new species.
The eastern coyote is comfortable around people (dog), sometimes forms packs (wolf) and is at least 50% bigger than the western coyote.
See,
https://senr.osu.edu/our-people/stanley-d-gehrt
There may be as many as 2,000 coyotes living in Chicago. Urban environments are rich in food and shelter.
On February 13, 2018 at 8:41 am, Jack said:
I’m Orange County resident. I haven’t seen the coyotes (or coywolf) yet, but my neighbors a mile north have. We’ll be on the lookout.
Yes, some of the IYI (intellectual yet idiot) around here want to trap the coyotes. Just like they want to trap the rats and mice, completely ignoring the fact that they’re responsible for our massive tick problem.
On February 13, 2018 at 9:08 am, Ned said:
I’ve had to shoot one coyote that came in on my wife and our dogs. I always carry a handgun.
It’s going to be bad this spring – mild winter in Az usually equals rabies in coyotes, foxes, bobcats, bats, etc.
On February 13, 2018 at 9:15 am, Fred said:
Absent from the discussion, probably for political (correctness) reasons, is an explanation of why coyotes are only arriving in the eastern US in the last 80 years. The reason is that we hunted and killed them driving them west. Americans rightly reduced their numbers to zero east of the Mississippi (except for likely northern Michigan and parts of Wisconsin) for the general welfare of our nation and the safety of our families. But new laws, urbanization, and sissies have allowed these animals, now even more dangerous because of cross breeding, to return to the east.
Also, if you’ve seen a coyote in an area of deciduous forest then you’ve also got bears moving into the area. Count on it.
On February 13, 2018 at 11:36 am, Pat Hines said:
The so-called Red Wolf was DNA identified just a few years ago as a wolf/coyote mix, not a unique species of wolf at all.
In 1966, some idiots imported coyotes into South Carolina for sport, thinking that since they weren’t native species, they’d not spread. I’d like to know their names so I could hunt them down.
We have lots of coyotes here in northern Greenville county, they’ve killed most of the rabbits, keep the squirrel population low, and tin out game birds too. Only wild turkeys appear to be successful against these canine vermin.
I’m still thinking about buying a first class predator call, and baiting them in for a big thinning of the population. That’s the only way the native small game can make a comeback.
On February 13, 2018 at 12:01 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Pat,
Just like feral hogs, now rampaging through S.C., Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, etc., etc., and destroying everything in sight.
On February 13, 2018 at 2:53 pm, moe mensale said:
“In 1966, some idiots imported coyotes into South Carolina for sport, thinking that since they weren’t native species, they’d not spread. I’d like to know their names so I could hunt them down.”
Obviously related to the idiots in south Florida who decided to dump pythons and boa constrictors into the Everglades decades ago because they couldn’t properly handle the full grown versions.
On February 13, 2018 at 7:26 pm, Gryphon said:
In the Exurban parts of Northern Virginia, there have been seen Feral Dogs running with Coyotes, explaining the sometimes-strange-looking ‘coyotes’. All get Whacked whenever possible, but the more they get into built-up areas where Gunning them Down is hazardous, the more they Multiply.
I can go up to .308 where I am, Now, but the adjoining Property is being offered for Subdivision, and that will end Rifle Use in that Direction.
Can’t Wait to hear the Urbanites that will move in complain about Wile E. dragging one of those Yuppie Lapdogs ‘out to lunch’…