A New Hampshire man strangled a coyote to death after the animal attacked him and his 2-year-old son.
Ian O’Reilly said that the canine first grabbed his son by the hood of his jacket on Monday while on a hiking trail. He was bitten twice trying to scare it away from his son and then took matters into his own hands. O’Reilly said he killed the coyote by holding its snout shut while crushing it under his body weight.
O’Reilly said he had “never harmed an animal, so it was a weird experience.”
“In the middle of the moment, you’re not really thinking or recording a whole lot,” O’Reilly told WMUR. “It’s really just instinct. The fact that when we tried to kick and push and get rid of him, it became clear that he was not disengaging.”
Earlier that same day, a driver in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, reported that a coyote attacked the person’s car, and about 20 minutes after that report, a coyote bit a woman and one of her dogs.
Officials are working to determine if all three incidents are from the same coyote. O’Reilly and the woman who was bitten were given rabies shots.
