Coyote attack at 'dog beach'

A La Conner area dog was mauled Sunday morning by a pack of three coyotes at the stretch of waterfront where locals take their dogs to play north of Pearle Jensen Way.

Yodi, a 9-year-old, 40-pound pit bull-beagle mix survived but suffered puncture wounds to her legs as two coyotes tried to pull her down.

The dog’s owners are Annie Jensen and Jerry Helsel. Jensen, who works at Pioneer Market, said Helsel was walking the dogs, Yodi and Jewel, a German shorthair, along the beach when the pair went over a rise nearby, and he heard a big commotion.

Jewel came running back to him, then went back toward the commotion. As Helsel ran over, calling for Yodi, he saw two coyotes on top of the little black and white dog.

To chase them off, Helsel “had to run right up there close, waving his arms,” Jensen said.

One of the coyotes is a larger-than-average male that Jensen had seen out there before, and there is a female and a younger one, she said.

After the attack, Jensen said, Helsel, along with two other local men, went out to find the coyotes and located their den.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife lists coyotes as nuisance animals.

Under state law, a landowner or member of a landowners’ family may trap or kill coyotes that are damaging crops or domestic animals.

It is illegal to hunt them or to trap them to sell or keep as pets.

Jensen said resident Gordy Bell put up signs warning pet owners to keep their animals away from the area of the dog beach inhabited by the coyotes.

Over the years, many local pets, especially cats and smaller dogs, have fallen prey to coyotes, which are common on both sides of the Swinomish Channel.