A couple people reblogging with my addition have gone on to say that a well-trained dog can be off-leash and all these things only apply to badly-trained dogs (who presumably deserve to suffer? and who apparently also deserve the opportunity to harm and distress people who didn't sign up for Bad Dog Encounters?). Leaving aside the fact that dogs are animals, will always be animals, and will thus always have the potential to act unpredictably, just like every other animal, including humans, who do you think is training the wildlife?
I have seen the incident I referenced above play out three times. All three times, the dog lost. In one of the instances, the dog was two feet from its owner. In one instance, the owner followed the coyote into the bushes, still lost the dog, and got bitten badly. The parks service killed half the swamp coyotes after that, which isn't fair. Again, the swamp is their home. They live there. If you bring them DoorDash, they shouldn't be punished for eating it.
Coyotes. Bears. Venomous snakes. Squirrels, either rabid or leading your dog into traffic. And feral cats who also shouldn't be outside and uncontained, but don't deserve to be ripped apart by dogs because people failed them. Your dog is not the only animal in the world.
Please. Do yourself, your dog, and my coyotes a favor. Leash your dog.
