SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — “We are a little lost right now.”
For Justin Rivard, the past day has been unimaginably difficult.
On Thursday morning, Rivard and his partner were walking their three dogs along San Francisco’s Baker Beach, when suddenly he says they became surrounded by a pack of five coyotes.
“My partner grabbed two of the dogs. I was trying to grab Peter, the third dog. And one of the coyotes grabbed him before I could grab him and they took him about 10 yards off the beach and killed him in front of us,” Rivard said.
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Rivard says they haven’t been able to find their dog Peter’s body.
He tells me the whole incident took place in a matter of seconds and has left him, his partner and their other two dogs traumatized.
Officials from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife say they believe coyotes are becoming more aggressive for a number of reasons. One being food and trash left out on places like beaches. And also because the animals are becoming less afraid of humans. A trend Fish and Wildlife says is important to reverse.
“We want to encourage people if you see a coyote, don’t ignore it. Scare it off. Use noise, haze them,” said the department’s Krysten Kellum.
Rivard says he wants to share his story to try and make sure that this doesn’t happen again to somebody else.
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In the meantime though, he’s asking authorities to take action.
“The National Park Service needs to come out, put signs, explain to people that there is a pack of coyotes here, that they are aggressive,” Rivard said.
The National Park Service, which runs Baker Beach, says they did place a sign up near the parking lot entrance Thursday afternoon following the attack. But they also acknowledged that more may need to be put up.
A step that would be welcomed by Rivard, who says he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to bring his dogs back to this spot ever again.
“I know they can’t bring my dog’s life back but I don’t want this to be other people’s dogs or, like we see today, there’s hundreds of children out here. It could be a kid at this point,” Rivard said.
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