Woman Realizes Her Dogs Were 'Playing with a Coyote' and Is Absolutely Horrified
They might look like dogs, but make no mistake — coyotes aren't here to play fetch and sleep at the foot of your bed. Nope, these canines can be downright dangerous to humans and even dogs if you catch them on the wrong day. One woman online was freaked out when she realized that her dogs had been playing with outside with a full-grown coyote.
Emily Mezzapelli of Canada was worried when she realized that there was another animal out there with her precious pups.
The video she shared on her page shows her three dogs starring out the glass door leading to the backyard. Stalking back and forth was the largest animal we've ever seen — a coyote. Although Messapelli wasn't sure herself and called it a wolf in the clip.
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"This is not good," she said from behind the camera. All three dogs could be heard growling as they stared at the creature and it stared back at them. "It is big. So they were just out there playing with this wolf and the wolf took the little piggy, their toy piggy," she added.
Thank goodness she managed to get her dogs away from coyote. This would surely scare any dog owner if they were in her shoes.
"They aren’t playing - it’s luring. Wolves and coyotes will do this," one person in the comments section wrote. "Shine your flashlight into the woods see how many eyes are just inside the tree line," someone else suggested. "Your dogs don’t know stranger danger," a third person added.
Luring Is a Myth
Many people wrote in to tell the woman that the coyote was "luring" her dogs — meaning they're pretending to play with the dogs so that they can "lure" the dog back to its pack where the pack will attack. But that's actually more of an urban legend.
Speaking with 12 News in 2019, Amy Burnett with the Arizona Game and Fish Department explained that while coyotes are smart and have been known to attack pets, but they simply aren't as crafty as we'd like to think. Burnett told the news outlet that if your dog finds itself in front of a pack of coyotes, it will most likely not be premeditated.
In fact, coyotes only use luring as a tactic to get predators away from their own young, Naturalist Janet Kessler was cited as having said by the news outlet. The myth comes from the fact that coyotes tend to travel in packs. But more likely than not, dogs are the ones who chase after these large creatures. The coyote will then try to lose the dog by hiding or by wearing it out. If the coyote has family members or members of the pack nearby, those coyotes will come help the coyote out.
That being said, it's still best to keep your dog and coyotes away from each other. No need to test and see if "luring" really is a myth.
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