Hero Dad Saves Son from Coyote Attack by Killing Animal with His Bare Hands
A New Hampshire dad is being praised for his quick thinking after he saved his young son from a coyote attack by killing the animal with his bare hands.
At around 11 a.m. on Monday, police received an alarming call about a coyote attacking a family while walking on the trail to Exeter, the Kensington Police Department shared in a statement on Facebook.
Police said the father “went into protection mode” and suffocated the coyote “until it succumbed.”
The father, Ian O’Reilly opened up about the harrowing incident, telling Boston 25 News it was “a very normal day” prior to the attack.
“My family and I took a walk in the woods as we usually do. A very normal day and out of the peripheral of my vision — and I realized by my wife screaming — that the coyote had attacked my youngest son and brought him to the ground,” O’Reilly told Boston 25 News.
O’Reilly’s wife quickly stepped in and separated their son from the wild animal and was able to get their other children away from the coyote.
Understanding that they were still in grave danger, O’Reilly told Boston 25 News that he put himself “in between the coyote and the family.” The animal continued to attack.
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“There was a series of attacks from the pretty aggressive coyote. It got me in the arm and the chest,” O’Reilly said.
The father didn’t give up, explaining, “I was able to then get it squarely in the jaw with my boot and I was able to jump on it and wrestle it to the ground, luckily it did not bite anyone after that. I was able to expire it.”
O’Reilly explained he initially tried to “deescalate” the situation by “kicking” the coyote, but he ultimately knew that killing the animal was the only way he and his family would make it out alive.
“There was no interest in it going away,” O’Reilly told Boston 25 News.
“I had to become the aggressor and continually jump on it and attack it and was able to get it to the ground,” O’Reilly told Boston 25 News.
As for how O’ Reilly managed to suffocate the animal he explained to the news outlet, “When I was able to get on top of it, I put my hand around it’s snout, so it wasn’t able to attack me anymore.”
“There was quite a bit of snow on the ground, so I shoved the face into the snow and then eventually I put my hand on its snout and expired it through suffocation. One hand on its windpipe and one on its snout did the trick,” O’Reilly shared.
O’Reilly also spoke out to CBS Boston, opening up about how he mustered up the courage to take on the viscous creature.
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“In the moment you don’t really pay attention to what’s going on you just try and go with whatever goes through your brain, instincts I suppose,” O’Reilly told CBS Boston.
Despite the traumatic experience, O’Reilly told CBS Boston “It won’t stop us from going outside.”
The family has since sought medical treatment and O’Reilly has already received his first round of rabies shots, Boston 25 News reported.
Hours before O’Reilly and his family were attacked, police received a call about a 62-year-old and her dogs being attacked by coyote at around 9 a.m.
At 8:40 a.m. that same morning, police received a call of a coyote attacking a vehicle on Drinkwater Road. Police share a photo of the animal trailing a vehicle in the middle of a street.
It is believed that the same coyote was involved in all the attacks. The body of the animal O’Reilly killed was later found and taken into a local animal hospital to be tested for rabies.
