Toronto couple pushes for change after dog attacked by pack of coyotes

Kahlua following the coyote attack at Princess Margaret Park. (Courtesy of Mary Youngson)

It started like any other night for Mary and Doug Youngson – a walk at their neighbourhood park with their rescue dogs, Mai Tai and Kahlua.

Mai Tai is a Taiwanese mountain dog they adopted nine years ago, while Kahlua was rescued five years ago from Cozumel, Mexico.

The retired couple said they had been regularly walking Princess Margaret Park near Kipling Avenue and Rathburn Road for months, often hiking down a trail single file and through the wooded area with their dogs on a leash.

As they ventured down the trail, at around 5 p.m. on July 1, Mary said Kahlua's nose went up in the air, and he stopped in his tracks, alerted by something nearby.

"I looked ahead, there was a coyote," Mary told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday night. "I screamed, 'Doug, there's a coyote.' The coyote stopped (but) didn't retreat."

When the couple looked around, they said a pack of eight coyotes surrounded them, and at that point, their dogs were terrified and had slipped out of their collars. They said they immediately grabbed hold of Mai Tai but one of the coyotes picked Kahlua up and ran off with him.

By the time Doug caught up with the pack, there was lots of yelping, barking and screaming, and Kahlua was caught between two tree stumps trying to fight off his attackers.

"When I jumped in there, they scattered, but they scattered five feet, six feet max, but they were just around me," Doug explained, adding he counted six coyotes around him. Two others had broken off from the pack to surround Mary and Mai Tai, about 30 yards away.

"I went to grab Kahlua, and he was in panic mode, so he kept trying to run away," Doug said. "He had bites all over him, he was bleeding, so finally I grabbed him, and when I picked him up, he bit my hand. He was in panic mode."

The couple said neighbours around the park heard the commotion and started banging pots and pans, screaming and shouting to ward off the pack.

They ultimately managed to escape with both dogs but said Kahlua sustained critical injuries that sent him to an intensive care unit for a week. Though the incident spooked Mai Tai, she was not bitten by the coyotes.

"He was on all sorts of blood transfusions, operations, repairs, massive cocktails of painkillers," Mary said of Kahlua.

The couple said they reported what happened to the city because they had learned other dogs were being attacked throughout central Etobicoke.

"I got really upset when I found out that we weren't isolated," Mary said.

"We heard (other) people telling (us) the same story, a similar story," Doug added.

A spokesperson for the city confirmed to CTV News Toronto that animal control officers were deployed to Princess Margaret Park to investigate and were on-site daily from July 2 to July 23 educating residents.

Signs were also posted and Coyote Watch Canada's Response Team walked through the park at dawn or dusk for a couple of weeks that month, the spokesperson said.

"On more than three occasions, staff encountered coyotes in groups of 2-3. Each time, the coyotes responded to aversion appropriately (for example, standing tall, using a loud voice and being assertive) and left the area," the city said in an emailed statement.

'Absolutely insulting'

The city organized a public meeting for the residents, which Mary Youngson said took place Aug. 1. During that meeting, the couple said they were told how to coexist with the coyotes and what to do to ward them off.

"I don't think they were listening to the fear from the residents that this was beyond just coexisting and … learning to deal with them, like giving us suggestions, like shake a garbage bag or screaming, yelling, like none of that would have worked in our situation," Mary said.

"It was absolutely insulting. It was insensitive and insulting to the group that was there. We've been dealing with coyotes for years, right? We've had to stay out of certain areas because of them."

On Aug. 23, Mary launched a petition to demand the removal of hostile coyote packs throughout the city – a petition which has 682 signatures so far. The city said it empathizes with the Youngson’s, and that it works with Coyote Watch Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to investigate the presence of coyotes following an attack.

"While the City does it's best to support wildlife in their natural habitat, if animal behaviour changes in a way that affects public safety the City will take action after assessing all options available," the statement reads.

Through the City's investigation, it said it determined this particular coyote family – which had pups born in April – had been "harassed" by off-leash dogs "and could explain their defensive response to dogs in the vicinity of the pups."

"Removing coyotes from this location will result in a rebound effect with increased reproduction and new coyotes entering the vacant habitat," the city said.

For Mary, coyotes pose a problem not just to those in central Etobicoke but all across Toronto.

"I think that it's important that not only do we deal with this pack, but that the city rethinks the actual management of the coyote population so it doesn't get to this extent."