Coyote mauls Saugus dog; residents cautioned

SAUGUS-A five-year old Maltese will think twice about going out in the wee hours of the morning after tangling with a coyote Friday.K-9 Control Officer Harold Young said Abbey, the Maltese, was outside her Gates Road home at 4 a.m. Friday when a coyote appeared and attacked the tiny dog.Young said she survived, but was seriously injured and is recuperating at home. He warned residents not to let their pets outside during early morning hours or evening hours unattended.He said residents should also try and keep a close eye on their feline pets since cats are still disappearing at an alarming rate.It’s been a little over a year since Young first noted that cats were disappearing. Most of the areas that reported missing felines were rural, which led Young to attribute the disappearances to coyotes. Young said cats are ideal prey for coyotes because of their small stature.Young has said there is no doubt the coyote population has grown over the years and he attributes much of that to displacement caused by development. With contractors building in increasingly rural parts of town the coyotes have nowhere else to go but into the suburbs.Residents are cautioned against trying to pet or even approach a coyote should they see one. The best course of action is to quietly walk away. Since the animals are essentially scavengers, it is also important that residents secure their garbage cans, supervise pets while they’re outdoors and keep an eye on bird feeders that have also been known to attract the wild dogs.As for Abbey, Young said the Maltese will be quarantined at the family home to make sure she is healthy and the environmental police have been notified of the incident.