'Just kept lunging at her.' Fairfield man recounts coyote attack on neighbor
Fairfield animal control killed a coyote after it attacked people in two separate incidents Monday.
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A Fairfield woman continues to recover from a coyote attack earlier this week that happened while she was walking her dogs on heavily wooded Catamount Road.
“Behind us is Brett Woods which is almost 200 acres,” explained neighbor Randy Newell. “We've seen, in the 30 years we’ve been here, everything from deer to bobcats, falcons, owl, wild turkey. We've seen a lot, including coyotes.”
But Newell never expected such a close encounter with one Monday afternoon. It began with an alert from his Ring doorbell camera.
“My wife yelled to me, because I was working downstairs, ‘It seems to be a woman, and she's got blood all over her legs,’” Newell recalled.
As Newell and his wife opened the front door, they saw a neighbor with her small dog on their step being attacked by a coyote.
“The coyote was not kind of relenting. It just kept lunging at her, lunging at the dog. The dog was kind of backed up against the glass. The dog was trying to protect itself and run behind her legs. Yet, the coyote was just biting at the dog and biting the woman's legs in the meantime,” Newell said. “I tried yelling as loud as I could to scare the coyote off and that was kind of the concerning thing and the immediate thing that went through my mind is this coyote is not timid. It's not backing off at all.”
Newell recounted how they had just seconds to get the woman and her dog inside. But once they did, the coyote didn’t stop.
“It could see the dog on the inside and just kept lunging at the glass and went into it several times,” Newell said, adding that the coyote remained in front of the house until they heard sirens from first responders on the way. “We had fire, animal control, police, an ambulance for her.”
Not long after, police said there was a second incident on nearby Fence Row Drive where a coyote attempted to bite another person.
Newell told News 12 that while first responders were heading there, a driver flagged them down and said, “I just passed a coyote that tried to bite the tires of my moving car.”
Animal control said the coyote was captured in that area and euthanized.
“I'm glad that they found the coyote because this isn't typical,” Newell said. “Everyone on this street goes for long walks. It's a beautiful, serene area.”
Still, after what happened, Newell will be taking precautions.
“Probably going to have a bear spray on my hip when we go for walks now,” Newell said.
The euthanized coyote has been taken for testing, according to animal control. The victim has begun rabies shots as a precaution.
Out of an abundance of caution, police are asking people to still be vigilant while outdoors, especially with pets. Concerning coyote behavior should be reported to Fairfield Animal Control at 203-254-4857 or the Fairfield Police Department at 203-254-4800.
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