Dallas officials address aggressive coyote concerns after toddler's attack

People inside the meeting were ticked off. They believe the city hasn’t been proactive to multiple reports of aggressive or abnormal coyote behavior. Now, the city is opening up about its plan following the coyote attack.

DALLAS - The city of Dallas says another coyote was killed in the Lake Highlands area. It's the fourth coyote killed since a 2-year-old boy was attacked last week.

The announcement was made Monday ahead of a community meeting about recent coyote sightings and reports.

A 2-year-old boy viciously attacked on his front porch in a neighborhood near White Rock Lake last week is the reason why concerned neighbors are meeting with city of Dallas officials inside White Rock Elementary.

"Having a coyote bite a child is just absolutely devastating," said neighbor Karin Saucedo.

Dallas Animal Services says since the attack, four coyotes in the area have been identified as aggressive and killed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Division.

DAS Director Melissa Webber details the plan moving forward.

"Coyotes are a native species to the area," she said. "We’re not specifically looking to kill any coyote. Right now, we’re looking at coyote behavior."

Last week, the city established a hotline for reporting coyote behavior.

"We really want to kind of back away and let the coyotes get back to their normal behavior so we can identify any of those bad actors and address that," Webber said. "are they aggressively approaching humans or other animals or are they keeping their distance?"

DAS says it had 14 calls about coyotes from February to the attack on May 3. The city says it needs to do a better job monitoring reports, and people at Monday's meeting agreed

Surveillance footage shows a prior instance of a coyote running at a child as well as other sightings.

Coincidentally, Saucedo, who grew up in the neighborhood, is a wildlife photographer. She echoes the city’s statement that coyote attacks on humans are rare.

"So when they enter into neighborhoods and they don’t find food, they should move on," she said.

Anyone who spots a coyote in the city of Dallas is urged to call the reporting hotline at 469-676-9813 or visit BeDallas90.org/coyotes.

Dallas hosts meeting on coyote response plan

Dallas city leaders will try to explain to people in a neighborhood why their complaints about coyotes were ignored until after a little boy was hurt in an attack.