The incident happened after her dad Ariel Eliyahuo collected his daughter from daycare and momentarily let her wander around their yard in Woodland Hills, Calif. while he unpacked the family car.
“Iheard Ariya scream. I thought she fell down,” Eliyahuo recalled to CNN. “I ran immediately to see what was going on and I saw the coyote attack her. I picked her up in my arms and tried to make the coyote go away.”
Running to his daughter’s defense, Eliyahuo can be seenin a home security videocradling his daughter in his arms and scaring off the coyote, which had charged into Ariya and snipped at her backside.
Thankfully, the coyote scurried away after the father threw a water bottle at the animal.
“I grabbed her and laid her down,” she added to CBS Los Angeles. “I sawblood on her pantsand on her leg and where she got injured. It was just terrible.”
“I just wanted to make sure she was ok,” the mom continued.
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In response the couple immediately took Ariya to an emergency room where she received “multiple rabies shots,” reported CNN.
Officials from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are currently looking for the coyote armed with dart rifles.
They have also taken DNA samples from Ariya’s clothing to ensure that they can positively identify the coyote once they catch it. A rep told CNN that the attacking animal will later be euthanized and tested for rabies.
Neighbors reported that that they have seen a coyote “regularly wandering around” the neighborhood “for months,” with one neighbor even saying they had to pepper-spray it when it came too close, reported CBS Los Angeles.
source: people.com
