Kristin Simkins encountered coyotes on a dog walk on a trail in Aberdeen on Thursday morning (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

COYOTE ATTACK

Kamloops dog owner warns others after frightening encounter with coyotes in Aberdeen

Jul 10, 2020 | 4:33 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kristin Simkins was taking her dogs for a walk Thursday morning (July 9) in Aberdeen. The trail behind Howe Road is one she’s been on many times. But on this stroll, she encountered coyotes.

“Two of the dogs, they started barking and you could tell they knew something was out there,” she recalls. “One of them veered off a bit and I kind of lost sight of him. They came back, and that’s when two coyotes were behind the dogs and started approaching me.”

The pair of coyotes didn’t care that Kristin was on the path.

“I started yelling at them and they had no fear of me whatsoever. They just kept approaching me,” says Simkins.

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However, two coyotes quickly became a pack of six. Two of the dogs suddenly went into protective mode when one of the coyotes bared their teeth. Friends soon came to the rescue, chasing them down.

“She found two of the coyotes, attacking my lab and she actually threw sticks and rocks at the coyotes, and that’s when they backed away from my dogs and they started to bite her.”

Kristin’s chocolate lab suffered a deep wound on his hind leg. Her friend’s dog was bit on the nose.

Close-up picture of Kristin Simkins’ chocolate lab who was bite by a coyote in Aberdeen (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

According to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, there have been more coyote sightings in Kamloops this year. Some have been spotted within Kenna Cartwright Park. The experience has Simkins anxious about going back on the trail. She has a message to other dog owners in town.

“Just be careful, be safe. I didn’t think that a pack of coyotes would even be interested in four large dogs, and as well as there was humans — three of us in the end — and they had no fear.”