Pack Of Coyotes Surrounds Woman, Dogs In Lincoln Park
UPDATED: 12/6/2011 2:40 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Lincoln Park neighborhood woman says she is fearful for people walking their dogs on the North Side after a very close encounter with a pack of coyotes Tuesday morning.
As WBBM Newsradio's Julie Mann reports, Kate Dodge was out with her 20- and 50-pound leashed dogs, Gordy and Madara, before daybreak, when she saw the not-so-uncommon sight of coyotes near the corner of Clark Street and Armitage Avenue.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Julie Mann reports
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This time, she says there were three coyotes.
"They were maybe 50 feet from me, so we stopped," she said.
Instead of moving on, Dodge said, the coyotes approached.
"Two stopped 20 feet away and kind of just branched out a little bit around me," Dodge said. "The third one ran right in, and it was within a foot of us."
Terrified after one of the coyotes started staring aggressively, Dodge said she started screaming in hopes of scaring the animal away.
"He was darting at the one smaller dog here (Gordy, a Labradoodle) and I raised a huge commotion."
Once there was a break in traffic on North Clark, Dodge was able to get across the street, get to her apartment and leave the coyotes behind.
Coyote sightings in the city are not uncommon, CBS 2's Suzanne LeMignot reports. In November last year, a coyote was caught on tape running down the middle of State Street.
In April of 2007, a coyote walked into a Quizno's in downtown Chicago and sat in the store's beverage cooler for about 40 minutes, before Animal Control Officers captured the coyote.
"We've taken it for granted that we can mutually exist," said Dodge. "I certainly don't want to create any hype, but I was completely unprepared for this morning's little episode."
"This coyote had no fear of me," she said.
Dodge says she is fearful for other dog owners in the area, and hopes for a quick and direct response from Chicago Animal Care and Control.
"There are, you know, 10, 15 people walking their dogs who have no idea that there's this small pack of coyotes that have no reservations in approaching them," she said.
