When Exeter, New Hampshire, resident Ian O’Reilly went on a hike Monday he wasn’t expecting to get in a fight with anyone — especially not a coyote.
O’Reilly was walking along a hiking trail with his wife and their three children when one of the children was suddenly pulled to the ground. A coyote had bitten their 2-year-old’s jacket, according to reports.
The couple launched into action, managing to separate the coyote from the toddler, O’Reilly told WMUR. He tried scaring and kicking the coyote away, getting bitten twice in the process, before he was able to pin the animal down and restrict its air supply. The coyote eventually died.
“In the middle of the moment you’re not really thinking or recording a whole lot,” O’Reilly told WMUR. “It’s really just instinct. The fact that when we tried to kick and push and get rid of him, it became clear that he was not disengaging.”
This same coyote possibly attacked Kensington resident, Pat Lee, and her dogs that same morning, the Guardian reports.
Both bite victims were treated and given rabies booster shots, according to NBC Boston. The coyote’s body is also undergoing rabies and DNA testing to verify it was indeed the same coyote responsible for both attacks, CNN reports.
Despite reports that coyote attacks are rare, this most recent string of incidents follows another in Chicago, which had never seen a coyote attack on a human before this month, according to FOX2.