Coyote That Bit LA Toddler Was Shot Dead, Officials Said — But Neighbors Kept Seeing It

LOS ANGELES, CA — A coyote that wildlife officials said they had killed after it bit a toddler in Atwater Village last month was actually alive and roaming the neighborhood for weeks before authorities euthanized it Tuesday.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife acknowledged Tuesday that the animal survived being shot Oct. 16, contradicting the agency's earlier announcement that it had been killed, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Wildlife officers shot the coyote near the 3300 block of Glenhurst Avenue on the evening of Oct. 16, hours after the animal attacked a toddler in his family's backyard. The child was treated at a hospital and released.

Officials initially announced that the coyote had been euthanized and later said DNA testing confirmed it was the animal responsible for the attack.

But officers never recovered the coyote's body, and tracking dogs were unable to locate it, according to the CDFW.

"Based on the available evidence at the time, officers believed the animal had succumbed to its injuries," the agency said in a statement Tuesday.

Instead, the wounded coyote continued appearing in the neighborhood, alarming residents who recognized the animal despite its pronounced limp, the Times reported.

Rich Dean, who lives near the site of the October shooting, told the newspaper he began seeing an injured coyote in late October. The animal appeared unable to use one of its front legs but otherwise behaved like the coyote that had been roaming the neighborhood for months.

Dean contacted a wildlife officer Oct. 30 and learned that authorities had assumed the animal died from blood loss but had never found its body, according to the Times.

A wildlife specialist subsequently spent days tracking the animal and urged state officials to consider capturing and treating it rather than killing it.

But on Tuesday, officers with the CDFW and U.S. Department of Agriculture returned to the neighborhood, located the coyote and euthanized it.

The agency said the animal was "humanely euthanized due to the continued public safety threat it posed."

Dean told the Times he would not have helped officials locate the animal if he had known they planned to kill it.

The coyote, nicknamed "Wylie" by neighbors, had reportedly been approaching people and pets for months before the attack on the toddler.

Some residents blamed the animal's increasingly aggressive behavior on a neighbor who allegedly had been feeding it.

CDFW spokesperson Cort Klopping told the Times Wednesday that the department was pursuing criminal charges in connection with the alleged illegal feeding of the coyote.

City News Service contributed to this report.