Folk Singer Taylor Mitchell Killed by Coyotes
 

Posted on Oct 29th 2009 7:14AM by Stephen Dowling

A teenage folk singer was attacked and killed by two coyotes in a national park in eastern Canada.

Taylor Mitchell, 19, was attacked while she was hiking alone in Cape Breton Highlands Park, Nova Scotia, when she was attacked by two of the animals on Tuesday. She died of her wounds on Wednesday.

Nearby walkers heard her screams and alerted park rangers, who arrived on the scene and shot one of the animals. The other has yet to be found.

A police spokesperson said the two coyotes were "extremely aggressive" when rangers arrived on the scene.

"Coyotes are normally afraid of humans. This is a very irregular occurrence," Bridgit Leger, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told Reuters news agency.

Mitchell was airlifted to hospital in Halifax but died there. Paul Maynard of Emergency Health Services said she had been admitted with multiple bite wounds on her body.

"Words can't begin to express the sadness and tragedy of losing such a sweet, compassionate, vibrant, and phenomenally talented young woman," Lisa Weitz, Mitchell's manager, said. "She just turned 19 two months ago, and was so excited about the future."

Mitchell's debut album 'For Your Consideration' had been recorded earlier this year and the artist had been on a tour of eastern Canada when the attack occurred.

"She was so young and talented -- her big dreams were a perfect match with her big, kind heart," said Michael Johnston, the album's producer.

Biologists said attacks by coyotes -- also known as prairie wolves -- were extremely rare because the animals were usually very wary of humans. The area of the park where the attack happened has now been blocked of as officials try to find out what caused the attack.

http://www.spinner.com/2009/10/29/folk-singer-taylor-mitchell-killed-by-coyotes/?icid=main|aim|dl2|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spinner.com%2F2009%2F10%2F29%2Ffolk-singer-taylor-mitchell-killed-by-coyotes%2F

jesus! People think they have scary animals here in Australia but the ones in america seem far worse......they only poison you here they don't tear you apart!

I've seen coyotees up close and they always ran away from me in fear. They're such lame creatures. I can't even picture them being brave enough to attack a human. Usually they are terrified of us.

uhm, this happened in canada~

what a horrid way to go~ they must have smelled the fear on the poor woman or something to attack like they did~

may she RIP~

Just as well could have been Los Angeles. We have coyotes, mountain lions..even bears in the northern mountain surburbs. Occassionally, they come down into the city...wondering through neighborhoods looking for food scraps

we have those animals as well in nebraska~

Bears!!!!!!!!! In Los Angeles????????????:eek::eek::eek:

Canada is in America :shrug: "We" are just the United States of America. All countries on the continents of North and South America are Americans. The people in the United States just use that term more often.

And - this poor woman :eek:

Every so often, we Southern Californians hear about a mountain lion attack on a bicyclist or a hiker in our foothills. Some of those attacks even prove fatal.

But this fatal coyote attack is just about unprecedented. Coyotes are all over the place in our towns & foothills, but they never threaten human beings. Occasionally, they gobble up house pets: cats & very small dogs.

Unlike wolves, coyotes are small canines. They roam in packs typically, but as another ledgie said, they are afraid of people & will almost always avoid them.

One wonders whether the killer coyotes in this story were rabid or were carrying some other disease that rendered them oddball.

The other possibility is that they just didn't like this young woman's singing.

Ha Ha Ha.:]

uhm to you. America isn't a country it's a continent. And even if it was the USA, what difference does it make, like the bears recognise the Canadian border or something?!

About the animals being afraid of humans - the same goes for here. The dangerous animals live in the centre where no one is and snakes don't exactly hunt people. They get afraid if you get close to them but I've been here a few years and don't know anyone who has even seen one.

Anyway so like I was saying, this sounds awful and goes to show that the thing about dangerous animals living down under would actually be more relevant to america if you ask me!