Coyotes Attack, Kill Pets in Middletown

Reported by: Lynn Giroud
Photographed by: Jeremy Glover
Web produced by: Neil Relyea

In Middletown there is growing concern over a predator that's attacking people's pets.

The coyote population is multiplying in many Southwest Ohio areas.

Anne Ledford says a coyote killed her dog.

"I heard real high-pitch squealing like kids playing loudly and I'm thinking there are no kids around here, so we walked down the sidewalk and there was my dog squealing, hanging out of a coyotes mouth."

Ledford was walking with her grandson on her hip when she watched a coyote kill her three-year-old Chihuahua, Nino.

"He was just crying and crying and I started screaming – Nino, Nino, Nino!!"

That was three months ago.

Since then, she's been afraid to let her 16-month-old grandson outside to play.

Next door, Anne White's dog, a four-month-old Australian Shepherd, was attacked by a coyote a week and a half ago.

"I had her tied to a tree while I walked to the road to get the paper" White said. "When I came back, I saw the coyote fighting with her, so I just yelled and screamed and the coyote took off."

White says her puppy suffered a few puncture wounds, and survived only because she was tied to a tree.

White has lived here along Union Road for 50 years and says she's never seen a coyote until three years ago.

She started hearing them howl at night, but this year she's seen them more than ever – at all times of day.

Her daughter-in law also has had several cats recently disappear.

"We can't trap them, we can't shoot them, we can't make them disappear. They're just gonna continue to multiply. It is scary because I think they're gonna be more desperate for food source," said Sandy White.

Ledford added, "They're more than a nuisance. They're a threat to our kids and our pets, so I think something needs to be done."