Authorities advise ‘hazing’ to scare coyotes after Queen Anne dog attacked

Residents of Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood have recently seen encounters with coyotes go up. Just last week, a woman fought a coyote attacking her dog.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), a woman saw the coyote in the backyard of her Queen Anne home with her dog in its mouth. The woman was subsequently bit while trying to free her dog. The woman sustained non-life-threatening injuries to her arm and head. WDFW said Seattle Police and emergency management services arrived and helped the woman. The woman went to a nearby hospital for her injuries.

Fish and Wildlife officers then arrived and looked for the coyote but were unable to find it. Chase Gunnell with WDFW told MyNorthwest via email that wildlife conflict specialists are conducting outreach in the Queen Anne neighborhood in hopes of preventing future coyote incidents.

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He added that if you do encounter a coyote, don’t appear scared.

“Don’t run away from it!” Gunnell stated. “Stand tall, make eye contact with the coyote, and shout at it. You also can throw something at it. Make loud noises, wave sticks, squirt it with a hose or otherwise ‘haze’ the coyote if it approaches. This ‘humane hazing’ can help re-establish the coyote’s natural fear of people.”

Gunnell added that because of WDFW’s need to focus on conservation, coyote management in urban or suburban areas is mainly handled by the city or town.

KIRO 7 reported that residents are worried another attack could happen in Queen Anne.

“I already had run-ins with the coyotes, so I just thought that’s gonna start happening a lot more often,” resident Rachel Alves told KIRO 7 on Thursday.

Alves said she tried to scare off a coyote, but it rushed toward people near the street.

“There’s a couple and it’s like right next to them and now it’s waiting,” she said. “They’re so smart. It waits for the car to go to cross the street.”

Alves added that sightings have become more routine and said a coyote ran right up to her.

“A dog, I thought, came running up to us, just like four feet away from us, and I looked and like that’s not a dog that’s a coyote,” she said. “It looked very happy like it wanted to play with us and so I tried to shoo it and then it came one step closer and then I called my dogs, and as soon as I did that it ran away.”

Gunnell told MyNorthwest coyotes are most active at night and in the early morning. He also said their diet is diverse and can include rabbits, garbage, birdseed, fruit from trees and more. However, Gunnell said coyotes can help humans and the ecosystem by controlling populations of mice, rats, moles and rabbits.

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He added that coyotes will be more attracted to humans who inadvertently feed them, whether by handouts, garbage access or left-out pet food.

“When people provide food, coyotes quickly lose their natural fear of humans and can become aggressive,” Gunnell stated. “If there are coyotes in your area, you can minimize the risk of conflict by keeping cats inside, keeping dogs leashed, feeding pets indoors, avoiding early morning and late evening walks with your pet, and keeping an eye on children and pets.”

You can report and view recent wildlife reports on Woodland Park Zoo’s website. If you witness a coyote attacks animals report it to WDFW police officers by calling 360-902-2936, email WILDCOMM@dfw.wa.gov or report it online on WDFW’s website. If a coyote attacks a person, call 911.

Contributing: Samantha Lomibao, KIRO 7

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.