VT woman, dog attacked by coyote during walk

A Vermont woman is recovering after she said she was attacked by a coyote.

The woman said she was walking with her young dog through a pasture behind her home in Panton last weekend when she saw what she thought was a dog running across the field. She then realized that it was coyote and the animal attacked her 8-month-old puppy and then went after her, WCAX-TV reported.

“I knew that I couldn’t watch my dog be ripped to shreds and I knew that everything I had seen on any television show or read in any book had said to be big and scary and fight — and I did,” she told the news station.

The coyote jumped up and tried to bite her and broke skin on her face, she said. She’s receiving rabies treatment as a precaution.

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Coyote attacks are not common, said Vermont Fish & Wildlife Game Warden Lt. Trevor Szymanowski. Since 1991, there have been four prior attacks in Vermont, including one involving a rabid animal, he said.

“It’s very likely that it was a female that had young in the area. It is that time of the year where essentially everything has babies, and they’re defensive,” he said.

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