Killeen resident Elaine Craig is warning her neighbors and group members concerning the threats of coyote assaults after one of many wild animals killed her cat, Tom.
Craig’s safety digicam captured the incident in her Lonesome Dove neighborhood in west Killeen.
Killeen resident Elaine Craig is warning group members concerning the threats of coyote assaults. Her cat Tom was killed by the wild animal in her yard in Killeen’s Lonesome Dove neighborhood within the early morning hours.
Courtesy photograph
“In the morning, a coyote came and grabbed my cat from the flower bed,” Craig stated. “He started to eat him, but the sprinklers went off at 4:30 a.m., and that scared him away.”
She stated amassing Tom’s stays from her yard was a traumatizing expertise.
“It was terrible,” Craig stated.
Tom, a big cat of roughly 26 kilos, was a stray cat earlier than Craig took him in.
“The only reason my cat was out was because he used to be a stray cat, and I couldn’t keep him in,” she stated.
Craig reached out to neighbors in individual and on the neighborhood on-line group Nextdoor to share the traumatizing occasion and make folks conscious of the chance.
“I talked to several people, and there is a pack (of coyotes) that lives at the end of Cody Poe (Road) in those woods and on that walking trail that is right off of Robinett (Road),” she stated. “There are a lot of sightings.”
Craig additionally observed that many stray cats and smaller dogs have disappeared in her neighborhood. Now, she is fearful that the subsequent sufferer won’t be a pet however a toddler.
“What if this happens to a child?” she stated. “It keeps getting dryer, so they will keep coming into the neighborhood to look for whatever they can find … This is really scary.”
While such circumstances are uncommon, coyotes attacking people have been documented. A 2-year-old boy was attacked by a coyote on the porch of his Dallas home in 2022, in keeping with media studies.
According to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, coyotes are slender, dog-like carnivores and resemble a small German Shepherd. A coyote weighs, on common, between 25 and 40 kilos and is widespread all through Texas.
“They are everywhere across the state,” stated Bell County Game Warden Brandt F. Bernstein.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department web site states the wild animal has tailored simply to increasing human communities into their habitat and might sometimes be present in city and suburban neighborhoods.
“We are trying to learn how to coexist, but at the end of the day … we are taking away their natural habitat,” Bernstein stated.
Leaving a inexperienced belt in new developments creates an lively hall for all wild sources, together with predatory and prey.
“If we are not careful, we are providing (wild animals) with easy opportunities to gather a meal,” Bernstein stated. “If we are taking our small pets out and let them run free unregulated, it’s simple for a wild animal to prey upon them.”
Although coyotes are most frequently seen within the early morning or simply earlier than sundown, they hunt in any respect hours of the day and evening. Yet, there are methods to stop incidents with most wildlife.
“The typical wild animal doesn’t want to have anything to do with you,” Bernstein stated.
The sport warden really useful minimizing simply accessible meals and water sources, corresponding to simply accessible trash cans, pet meals or fowl feeders, and pool water, in addition to eradicating doable shelters, corresponding to overgrown bushes or shrubs.
“People need to be aware,” he stated. “If you are feeding the neighborhood cats by putting cat food on your porch, you are also inviting those other critters and those who prey on them to come in.”
While it’s not unlawful in Texas to hunt coyotes or different predatory animals with a correct searching license, Bernstein stated native legal guidelines might restrict these rules additional as you aren’t allowed to discharge a firearm inside metropolis limits.
Yet, residents have choices below the pretense of the specter of security to property.
“If you are a homeowner who lost a cat or a dog in your backyard and you don’t want that to happen again, you can set up a trap,” Bernstein stated. “There is no license required by the state because it’s your property.”
