Wildlife officials euthanized a coyote in Atwater Village after a reported attack on a 16-month-old child.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers responded to the 3300 block of Glenhurst Ave. Friday after getting reports that a child was injured in an incident involving a coyote, the department said in a statement.
The child was treated at a hospital and released. That same evening, officers found a coyote in the area where the child was bitten, trapped it and euthanized it.
Officials took DNA samples from both the child and the coyote to determine whether the coyote that was euthanized was the same one that bit the child.
If a person encounters a coyote and the animal approaches them, CDFW suggests keeping a safe distance and backing away slowly, keeping children and pets close to them, making loud noise, trying to appear bigger and letting the animal leave the area on its own. If a coyote attacks, the department recommends fighting back and then calling animal control or 911.
Coyotes attacking humans is rare, but not unheard of.
In February, a mother and her 3-year-old child ran back into their Pasadena home as a coyote approached the boy. Last year, a coyote bit a 6-year-old child at a baseball field. In 2022, a child was attacked on a front lawn in Woodland Hills.
The first confirmed fatal coyote attack in California occurred in 1981, when 3-year-old Kelly Keen was mauled in front of her home.
