Coyote attacks girl at Trans-Canada Highway rest stop in southern Alberta
Global News
An 11-year-old southern Alberta girl is recovering after being attacked by a coyote at a rest stop along the Trans-Canada Highway between the cities of Medicine Hat and Brooks.
An 11-year-old girl is recovering after being attacked by a coyote Tuesday evening along Highway 1.
The Nyberg family has never given a second thought about living near coyotes in their city of Brooks in southern Alberta but that has since changed.
On Boxing Day evening, the family pulled over at a rest stop on the Trans-Canada Highway west of the hamlet of Suffield, at a spot roughly 250 kilometres west of Calgary and 30 kilometres east of Medicine Hat.
“It just happened so fast. He came out of nowhere,” said 11 year-old Hailey Nyberg about her encounter with the coyote where the animal grabbed her leg and wouldn’t get go.
“I kicked and yelled as hard as I could. He grabbed onto my leg. I tried getting onto the garbage can but I couldn’t and he tried dragging me to the field.”
Her parents managed to get Hailey into the car but the animal wasn’t exactly backing down.
“When I grabbed her, the coyote was still trying to pull her into the ditch,” said Hailey’s dad, Dustin Nyberg. “While I was getting her to the car he was lunging at us. As I was making my way to the driver’s side of the car he was coming at me as well.
“Once we were in the car , he laid down outside the car with his ears pinned back, staring at us. He was on a mission.”
