Discordant surveillance video showed a two-year-old girl being attacked by a coyote in broad daylight Friday on the lawn of a home in Los Angeles. The girl survived and is recovering.
The attack, which took place in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, was captured on the family’s Ring camera system.
In the video, the family appears to get out of their car when a coyote approaches the girl on the lawn and begins dragging her by the legs, prompting the toddler to scream. When the girl’s father approaches, the coyote lets go of the girl and backs away.
“I just wanted to make sure she was okay,” said the girl’s mother, Shira Eliyaheo. CBS Los Angeles.
The video shows the girl’s father throwing a stone at the animal.
“I grabbed her and laid her down,” Eliyaheo said. “I saw blood on her pants and on her leg and where she hurt. It was just terrible.”
Ring/Cabir Family
Eliyaheo told CBSLA that her daughter was taken to the hospital for treatment, where she received a series of rabies shots and is recovering.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) told CBSLA on Saturday that prior to the attack, it had received multiple reports of an aggressive coyote in the neighborhood from area residents. He was working to get a coyote DNA sample from the girl’s clothes.
CDFW personnel were also on standby in the area with dart guns if another sighting was reported, the spokesperson said.
There have been several coyote attacks in the Southern California area this year. In April, another 2-year-old girl was attacked by a coyote on a beach in the town of Huntington Beach. Responding officers then shot and killed two coyotes in the area, and CDFW biologists DNA samples used to confirm that one of these two coyotes had attacked the girl. She suffered serious injuries, but survived.
In June, a coyote attacked a 2-year-old girl in a park in the Orange County town of Fountain Valley. This girl also survived.
CBSA staff
