BRENTWOOD, Mo. — A post on social media about a coyote attacking a dog is making the rounds in Brentwood, Missouri.
"A lot of people are saying that they have been sighting coyotes at Brentwood Park," Matt Kuehner said. "Hearing it from different apps."
"I saw a video posted by a neighbor of the coyotes moving through the area. I heard that they attacked another animal," Jane Grady said.
Dan Zarlenga with the Missouri Department of Conservation said this is the time of year coyotes are on the move and it's breeding season for them. He said coyotes can be seen anywhere, even in the city.
Coyote attacks can happen in a second.
"It's been nine years now. I was at the dog park with three small dogs and as I was loading them in the car, it takes a moment to get them hustled into the car and I heard a yelp and one of my dogs was in the jaw of a coyote being carried away and I've never seen her again," CEO of CoyoteVest Paul Mott said.
The attack on Mott's dog happened in California and he created a vest to try and prevent coyote attacks.
"We have hundreds of testimonials of it actually working and saving dogs lives," Mott said. "It's the greatest thing in the world for us to come in and get a message from one of our customers, saying, 'Oh my gosh, thank you! It worked. It saved my dog's life last night.'"
While Zarlenga with the Missouri Department of Conservation hasn't heard of the CoyoteVest, he thinks it could work.
"Anything we can do to harass them, yell at them, throw things, blast air horns, spray them with hoses anything we can do to scare them off," he said.
He says the goal is to make our human environment less appealing to coyotes. Like with any problem wildlife, Zarlenga said to secure your trash and to not leave out pet food or birdseed.
"A lot of times they go for small dogs," Zarlenga said. "A lot of people think they are eating them as prey, but a lot of times it's more of a canine rivalry thing."
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