Woman Fights Off a Coyote With a Pitchfork and a Donkey

This is one of the craziest humans versus animal stories I've heard in a long time. Especially, one involving a coyote. Coyotes are usually afraid of humans and pretty much run the other way if they see you.

When we moved into our house that is surrounded by thick woods our neighbor came over and told us to watch out for the coyotes because they can be very aggressive. Not normally toward humans, but mostly toward pets. She told us about a few neighbors that had lost pets to packs of coyotes in the area.

We have four dogs so we were concerned. However, one of our dogs is a huge Great Pyrenees named Gryffin. The Great Pyrenees were bred to protect flocks of livestock from coyotes, wolves, and other preditors. I'm 100% confident Gryffin would easily kill a coyote so we don't worry about the coyotes too much even though we hear them yipping, barking, and howling at night around our house. My son even likes to run out and scare them away by banging two pots together....it actually works pretty well, but after hearing about this woman that fought off the coyote with a pitchfork and a donkey I might ask him not to run out to scare off the coyotes anymore.

So here's the story from the Times Union. A woman in East Haddam, Connecticut, about two and a half hours from the Captial Region, was attacked by an apparent rabid coyote. She was outside when a coyote attacked her and bit her boot. She tried to fight it off with a pitchfork she was using to feed her donkey. At some point, the coyote got too close to the donkey and it kicked the coyote. The coyote ran away but soon came back later in the day. She tried to hit it with her car, but it got away again. Eventually, some neighbors tracked down the coyote and killed it. An East Haddam Animal Control Officer took the coyote and disposed of it.

Overall, it sounds like this woman was pretty lucky she wasn't seriously injured by the coyote. Unfortunately, since she came in contact with a rabid animal she is going through rabies treatment as a precaution.

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