Coyotes

[cowboydoc]

Brian,
A rabid animal will attack anything! If a coyote got rabies they definitely would probably attack your horse. I doubt that one coyote would stand a snowball's chance in hell of seriously hurting your horse but they could get a bite or two in and infect them. Keep up on your rabies vaccine and sleep soundly at night. I have never heard of a single coyote taking out a horse so don't worry about it.

PS- Any horse questions you have feel free to ask. I love talking about horses.

 

[cowboydoc]

Bird,
That's terrible on that horse. I think I would have snuck over there in the night and put it down. Hate to see animals suffer, bet it tore you up seeing that.

 

[Bird]

Yeah, Richard, it just made me sick. I couldn't believe that deputy didn't do what needed to be done. But even then he was afraid of the liability even though he had plenty of witnesses to the fact that the horse had no chance at all of recovery. Naturally, the owner showed up 3 or 4 days after the horse died to check on his horses and cattle in that pasture, and he, too, thought a little common sense should have prevailed. Unfortunately, he didn't come out to check on his livestock nearly as often as he should have, but he did give us his address and phone number and permission to promptly put down any animal that in our opinion would not recover.

Bird

 

[ERNIEB]

<font color=blue>Assumed that they were very timid of man </font color=blue>
This is something I find interresting about coyotes. I once spent a summer on the Chapparel Wildlife Management Area, down in South Texas. It's about 17,000 acres in size, use to be part of the Light Ranch, surrounded by other large ranches. I liked to go sit at a stock tank in the evenings. Since, it that country water is scarce, you see alot of critters coming to get a drink. One evening, I walked around the tank before finding a good hiding place. About 2 hours later, 3 coyotes came wandering down the bank. One had his nose to the ground, and as soon as he got to the place where I had walked he took off like a shot. The other two right behind him.
Yet here I've had them come right up to the house to steal a chicken or guinea.
IMO, the coyote is a very adapatable animal. It will either avoid man, or live off him. HIs needs dictate his behavior. In that sense, in an age of endangered species, the coyote is one animal that has thumbed his nose at man.

Ernie

 

[JohnS]

I believe many of the locals (farmers and others) do their best at keeping the coyote population low. Haven't witnessed it, but grapevine indicates it does happen. The coyote's low profile in our area, could certainly be a response to this, and/or food is plentiful and they don't need to pursue high-risk oportunities.

PS: Only have 8 years in current location. Even though I have country blood, probably won't be considered a local, until a couple of generations are established. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

JohnS

 

[utahmule]

JohnS,

It has nothing to do with beliefs or moral convictions, and everything to do with the fact that my ability to hit them is not so hot!

Eric

 

[JohnS]

Eric,

Sounds like you aim is as good as mine /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

JohnS

 

[AndyR]

for what it's worth- when I went to an electric fencing clinic this spring the owner had a good way of "sensitizing" the coyotes. Hang a strip of fresh bacon about nose height every 10 or 20 feet along the fence. Just add power and a coyote and you have mighty crispy bacon/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif He claimed it worked quite well.

Andy in NH

 

[glennmac]

Bird, that's a terrible but educational story. The horse must have been sick. I wouldnt have thought one or two dogs would stand a chance against a healthy adult horse. I wonder if they were lucky enough or clever enough to hamstring the horse to bring him down. You wouldnt think domesticated animals would know how to do that, though.

 

[Bird]

glennmac, my horse had been sick (horse doctor we had then wasn't really a vet, but said it was "distemper"), but she seemed to be getting well. I don't know about the other horse. And I don't think those two dogs were "domesticated". Lots of people in the area were familiar with that pair and were trying to get a shot at them, but they were wild as any coyote.

Bird

 

[BrianC]

Richard,

Thank you for the offer of horse education. I certainly will take you up on it.

 

[Wingnut]

I dunno, folks ... either we had/have pretty wussy coyotes in northern Alberta ... or I just had a whole 'nother experience. In 8 years of living with 2 packs on coyotes in close proximity ... no one I knew ever lost a calf ... neither of my free roaming dogs were ever bothered, the mouse and rabbit population was kept pretty well in check and, yes, I did find tracks right beside the house in the snow in winter.
I guess maybe they appreciated my attitude of wanting to live with nature instead of against it enough to treat me kindly ...

too bad that common sense ain't