Heather Martin Reporting News

RABIES, COYOTE - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (NEW YORK) ALERT

A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

[1]
Date: 26 Jan 2010
Source: The Journal News - White Plains, NY [EDITED]
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/lohud/access/1948296681.html?dids=1948296681:1948296681&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&fmac=3b012ea3c5fa26b127aaec654c23cf46&date=Jan+26%2C+2010&author=Hoa+Nguyen&desc=Coyote+attacks+woman%2C+and+later+pit+bull+in+Greenburgh

A coyote attacked a woman, biting her on the arm and leg today [26 Jan
2010], and later went after a pit bull in the area of Travis Hill
Park, New York, police said. At about 3:15 p.m., a 56-year-old woman
walking along the trails of the woods around Old Tarrytown Road and
Wyndover Road, roughly 500 feet west of the Bronx River Parkway, was
bitten and scratched by a light tan coyote, officials said. She was
taken to White Plains Hospital where she was in stable condition,
officials said.

Greenburgh police began searching for the coyote with the help of a
Westchester County helicopter, spotting the animal but being unable to
catch it, officials said. Later a resident living on Kent Road
reported that his pit bull had been attacked by the same coyote,
officials said. Sgt. Nick Reckson said the dog was injured but is
alive [it was presumably up-to-date with its vaccination. - Mod.JW].

It's unclear whether the coyote had rabies as the animal remains on
the loose, Reckson said.

Residents are advised to report sightings of the coyote and to stay
away from it. Pets also should be kept inside and not allowed to run
loose outdoors. Garbage should be secured so as to not attract the
coyote and other wildlife.

[Byline: Hoa Nguyen
hnguyen7@lohud.com]

--
Communicated by:
Merritt Clifton
Editor, Animal People
P.O. Box 960
Clinton, WA 98236
anmlpepl@whidbey.com
http://www.animalpeoplenews.org

[2]
Date: Fri 5 Feb 2010
From: Merritt Clifton
anmlpepl@whidbey.com

Rabid coyotes, NY

Lone coyotes don't attack pit bulls. They sometimes attack smaller
dogs, partly to be rid of a suspected threat to a den and partly for
dinner, but the coyote modus operandi when feeling obliged to engage a
larger dog is to decoy the dog into giving chase, and then luring the
it into an ambush by several coyotes at once.

The decoy coyote will lead the dog past at least one other coyote, who
will lunge out of the brush and pull a hind leg from under the dog.
Then other coyotes come in for the kill.

This is a variant of the usual coyote approach to dogs, perhaps 1st
and most memorably described by Mark Twain in "The Cayote [sic]:
Allegory of Want," 1872, incorporated into his book 'Roughing It'. The
basic idea is to minimize risk to self and litter by decoying the dog
into becoming disoriented, lost, and exhausted.

Usually coyotes will actually attack and injure or kill a dog of their
own size or larger if the dog is really dangerous to them. If the dog
shows signs of having learned a hard lesson, the coyotes don't risk
direct combat. Yes, I have witnessed such encounters, which played out
exactly as Mark Twain reported, with the dogs slinking away looking
completely defeated.

In short, the coyote who attacked a pit bull, reported above, was
engaging in such extremely uncharacteristic behavior as to be almost
certainly rabid, in my opinion from having observed many a coyote in
proximity to dogs (and many a pit bull, too, for that matter.)

--
Merritt Clifton
Editor, Animal People
P.O. Box 960
Clinton, WA 98236
anmlpepl@whidbey.com
http://www.animalpeoplenews.org

[Any abnormal behavior by a wild animal is a warning flag that it
might be rabid: raccoons, normally seen at dawn and dusk, out in the
sunlight; cautious animals hanging around a house or barn. Attacks
without provocation on humans, dogs or horses have a 40-50 percent
chance of involving a rabid animal. This is a particular concern with
coyotes because of their surging population numbers in urban, suburban
and rural areas, their large size and the damage they can do in an
attack.

A common strain in coyotes in New England is the raccoon rabies virus
-- this strain is found up and down the whole east coast of the USA.
While much attention is aimed at aggressive animals with rabies, one
should remember that 'dumb' rabies is in fact more common and people
and dogs get bitten when carelessly investigating such a sick animal.

As a veterinarian I have over a number of decades seen them all, which
is why I still get regular rabies shots -- which is also why one
should make sure that one's dogs and cats get their shots too. Cats
love playing with sick bats, and bat rabies is not uncommon,
especially in Mexican Freetail bats.

For a longer discussion go to:
http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/2/357.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/epidemiology.html

Greenburgh, NY, Map:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Greenburgh&state=NY&country=US&latitude=41.040798&longitude=-73.806801&geocode=CITY

Coyote pictures:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/coyote.html