@Intrepid,
Intrepid wrote:
Just one last general comment regarding coyote attacks in North America.
There are only two recorded fatalities in North America from coyote attacks.
In 1981 in Glendale, California, a coyote attacked toddler Kelly Keen,
who was rescued by her father, but died in surgery due to blood loss and a broken neck.
In October 2009, Taylor Mitchell, a 19-year-old folk singer on tour, died from injuries sustained
in an attack by a pair of coyotes while hiking in the Skyline Trail of the Cape Breton Highlands
National Park in Nova Scotia, Canada
Does any sane and reasonable person actually think that hikers
should carry guns in the event of a coyote attack?
O, yes, indeed; I strongly suspect that
Taylor Mitchell did
within the last few moments of her life. I don 't believe
that being chewed to death and exsanguinated was OK with her.
(Guns are also good against
other predators.)
I 'd be surprized that if she had survived and if she chose
to continue hiking (which I have never recommended)
that she 'd continue to go out
unarmed
or
if she had a sister who also liked to hike,
it woud seem unlikely that she'd go out unarmed, knowing what happened.
Logically, we probably shoud add that (most likely) this wild terrain is also
the hunting domain of more serious predators of North America, e.g. cougars n bears.
It pays to be prepared.
I must say that altho u might be correct that Taylor never knew what hit her,
that seems unlikely. Getting attacked by predatory animals usually is not like
unexpectedly getting hit by lightning.
It is more likely that Taylor saw the animals at some distance from her,
that she became
alarmed, that she turned her back (as u did qua the bears)
and ran away, imitating the behavior of prey,
thereby reflexively activating their predatory instinct
which overcame their natural fear of humans, because she showed fear.
If indeed she did see them some distance away,
then it woud have been easy to get her gun out and engage them; thay 'd have fled.
Even while thay were actively biting her, she very well might have gotten her gun out and opened up on them,
except for the fact that
SHE WAS UNARMED.
Its like u can 't pull over and park at the side of the road to stop and get
health insurance,
when u are in an ambulance on your way to the hospital with a heart attack.
Guns are health insurance.
Sometimes I have wondered as to the reason that
I have been so obsessively interested in self defense and the means thereof.
People have asked.
I can 't help but wonder whether, in an earlier incarnation,
I was in a position similar to that of Taylor Mitchell.
David
