DUBLIN — East Bay Regional Park District staff closed Dublin Hills Regional Park to visitors after a 5-year-old girl was attacked and bitten by a coyote Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
Park officials immediately responded to a park location around 2:20 p.m. after learning that the girl, who was walking with family members, was approached and bitten by one of five or six coyotes. The girl’s family quickly intervened and the animals fled.
Alameda County Fire Department firefighters also responded, and provided care before transporting the girl to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, EBRPD police Capt. Alan Love said.
The park, which covers about 650 acres within open space north of Interstate 580 and northeast of Schaefer Ranch, was closed to visitors while parks staff coordinates with California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials to locate, trap and remove the coyotes, parks spokesman Dave Mason said.
Love said he could not remember hearing of a similar attack in his 20 years working for the parks police department.
East Bay Regional Park District wildlife program manager Doug Bell said a multi-agency response, including U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal, Plant and Health Inspection Service staff, would work as quickly as possible.
“This is a public safety issue. It appears to have been an unprovoked attacked” against an adult and three children, Bell said. “In a situation where we have potential loss of life and threat of further loss of life with an animal disposed to attack humans, it’s incumbent upon us to identity and remove the offending animals.”
THANK YOU for joining us today! Check out #LetsTalkCoyotes for a recap of today’s Twitter chat about coyote safety, education & programs to help better understand our wild neighbors. pic.twitter.com/QFVRvxztDE
— California Department of Fish and Wildlife (@CaliforniaDFW) March 30, 2020
Bell, who has worked with the park district since 2005, said he could not recall a similar incident happening, and noted that the state’s fish and wildlife department had promoted its guidelines to keep coyotes wild by hosting a social-media live chat this week using the hashtag #LetsTalkCoyotes earlier this week.
“It’s kind of devastating. We’re always looking at the balance between wildlife and human enjoyment of the parks. […] We’re fringed by suburbs, and our parks are in between major population centers, so naturally coyotes take advantage of situations like pet food left in yards, human food left out, or rabbits coming into cultivated and irrigated areas.”
Bell said the majority of park-tracked coyote interactions are usually with dogs either on- or off-leash, and rare but occasional instances of small-dog attacks led officials to recommending on-leash wilderness hiking.
He said he could not safely or reasonably speculate about whether increased human presence in parks during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was a factor, but added that staff had stepped up patrols of park staging areas to note vehicle spacing and appropriate social distancing.
In a call Thursday afternoon, state Fish and Wildlife representative Patrick Foy confimed a coyote had been tracked and fatally shot around dawn Thursday, and that lab tests to establish a genetic match to the girl’s attacker and any possible presence of rabies or another disease might likely be complete within a day.
“It remains a concern, until we can get this animal identified,” Foy said. “If it’s conclusively determined, that will alleviate much of the concern but not all […] if we can identify, people want to have some kind of relief.”
Foy advised residents and park visitors seeking exercise and fresh air to carry a whistle to aid in keeping aggressive animals at bay and in drawing attention, as well as standing tall, picking up vulnerable small children and fighting back with sticks, rocks or other materials at hand.
Check back for updates. Staff writers Robert Salonga and Annie Sciacca contributed to this report. Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
