Coyote Snatches Family Pet From Yard

It’s uncomfortable to even think about, but try to imagine a coyote carrying off your family dog, one you’ve had for nine years…

Bruce Weiner, of Atlanta, has owned a Morgan County farm for 20 years. While living in Atlanta, he often takes his family out to the farm to enjoy the slower-paced lifestyle.

“We’ve seen armadillos, deer, turkey, wild boar, snakes, but we’ve never seen a coyote on the property,” said Bruce.

Also 20 years ago, Bruce and his wife hired a nanny, Jennifer Lang, to help with the kids. Although Bruce’s kids are pretty much grown now, Jennifer is still the nanny. One of her current responsibilities is taking care of the dogs.

Back in February, Jennifer was at the farm and let all three of the family’s dogs outside.

“It was right at 6 p.m., right at dusk,” said Bruce. “Within minutes—she turned her back for just a second—she heard one of the dogs crying, and what looked like a big dog was taking off with one of our dogs, a 3 1/2-lb. Yorkshire terrier.

“It just grabbed it and carried her off in its mouth right in front of our nanny—10 feet in front of her!”

One of the other dogs, a 20-lb. miniature schnauzer, didn’t like the fact that its companion was leaving in the mouth of a much-larger dog.

“He tore off after it and came back with his ears down. She was gone,” said Bruce. “We had a search party out with 10 people looking for hours and couldn’t find anything.”

The yorkie’s name was “Snoochie,” and she was 9 years old. Obviously distraught from losing a member of the family, Bruce called local trapper Joe Chandler to come out and set some traps for the coyote.

“We hired Joe, and three days later he trapped a very large coyote on our property. We’re sure it was it. We asked our nanny, and she said it looked just like it,” said Bruce.

If you have trapping needs within 90 minutes of Madison, Joe can be reached at (404) 372-6533.