A blurry photo depicts a coyote approaching a car in New Hampshire. (Photo | Kensington NH Police via Facebook)
Police in Kensington, New Hampshire, took to social media to advise the public on keeping pets and children indoors after they say a coyote attacked a 62-year-old woman and her dog Monday morning.
Local media reports the woman heard her dogs barking and came upon a coyote outside acting aggressively. The animal gained access to the inside of the porch and attacked her and one of her dogs, according to reports. Contractors working nearby were able to help the woman fight the coyote off, which ventured into nearby woods.
Officials believe the same coyote aggressively attacked a vehicle earlier this morning in nearby Hampton Falls before running off into the woods.
A post on the police department’s Facebook page states that “If you spot the coyote, do not approach it and call the Kensington Police immediately.”
(Update): A man was walking with his family on Phillips Exeter Academy’s Red Trail on the Kensington-Exeter line, in close proximity to the initial attack, and strangled the animal to death after it attacked his young son. The man was bitten during the incident and received rabies shots at a local hospital according to police.
New Hampshire Fish and Game officers had obtained the animal by Monday morning, and the coyote will be tested for rabies, according to officials.
The news comes just days after a local man reported on social media to being attacked by two coyotes while walking home Saturday night in Rochester. The city of Rochester lies approximately one hour north of Kensington. No formal report for the Rochester incident could be documented at the time of this article’s posting, however.
The latest conflict comes just weeks before legislative hearings on a plethora of restrictive political bills which will be heard in the state’s capital city of Concord.
The bills range from the outlawing of hunting contests (which would include coyote), to attempts at banning regulated trapping (which would include coyote), to changes in the governance of the state’s wildlife management agency (which would include how to manage coyotes).
Updates will be provided to this story as they become known.