So sad.. womans dog mistaken for a coyote and set free.

[thefishery]

Quote:
The dog had gotten out of the fence. This happened in my home town and I can say I am NOT surprised. The humane society there is ridiculous. They don't know anything about the breeds of dogs they have there. ALL their dogs are shepherd mixes or collie mixes when they are obviously something totally different. What I want to know is, who the EXPERTS are.

This is the capital city of Kentucky and I am ashamed to have come from there. SO glad I moved...not like this town is any better...but at least I got out of there.


ETA: The home improvement store is located next to Interstate 64 so you can just imagine where the dog will end up

Hopefully the dog will go left to the shopping center and not across the interstate.

 

[Wolfwoman]

Quote:
Its quite simple, there are SO many coydogs out there today in the wild that they are starting to look like... well... sled dogs actually. I've seen many a coyote pelt from reputable trappers that looked JUST like Fido next too. Amazing and beautiful pelts and they make gorgeous mounts, but they DO look like dogs!

Reminding everyone this poster is from Alaska...... And she is right! There are sooo many mixed breeds that resemble coyotes that it isn;t even funny. My own dog looks JUST like one.

Thanks Deb, I sometimes forget my lifestyle is a tad different than others...lol

That being said, I MUST see pics of your pup!!

 

[AngieChick]

Quote:
There was a neat documentary on the origins of dogs. One of the things that they talked about were the domesticated silver fox experiments. Here is the wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox

To sum it up:

The domesticated silver fox is the result of nearly 50 years of experiments in the Soviet Union and Russia to domesticate the silver morph of the red fox. The breeding project was set up in the 1950s by the Soviet scientist Dmitri Belyaev. As a result of selective breeding, the new foxes not only have become tamer, but more dog-like as well.
The domesticated foxes exhibit both behavioral and physiological changes from their wild forebears. They are friendlier with humans, put their ears down (like dogs), wag their tails when happy, and have begun to vocalize and bark like domesticated dogs. They have also developed color patterns like domesticated dogs and have lost their distinctive musky 'fox smell'.

They were really just breeding these foxes to create an easier to handle fur animal, but in selecting the tamest foxes they had some interesting results show up. The physiological changes must have been genetically linked to the "tame" genes. I'm sure that someone with more knowledgeable about genetics could do a better job of describing what is going on. Anyway, there could be something going on with the coyotes up there as well.


And no, they should not have let her dog go without further research and verification that it was, in fact, a coyote.​

 

[ShrekDawg]

oh my gosh! how sad! poor woman, I feel for her and her dog, it must be awful to lose a beloved family member like that and especially that way, i feel for them, and I also agree that the dog is probably long gone by now, one way or another,

that is just so tragic, poor lady!...

 

[ShrekDawg]

Although if you actually look at the pic and click it to enlarge it, she does kind of look like a coyote, especially her head, look at her, shes older, about the same coloring, speckled with white/grayish and whatnot due to age and stuff, basically freckled tan, so I could kind of see how somebody could mistake her for a coyote or at least a wild animal. Although you think they would have realized shes NOT a wild animal if not by color than at least by size and tempermant/personality and demeanor, but maybe they thought it was a younger one so thats why it was smaller? but still its pretty hard to mistake a DOG for a WILD ANIMAL such as a COYOTE... poor lady, although i think everyone was at fault, not really any one persons fault, i think everyones to blame but still, poor woman, that must be so tragic, i cant even imagine, poor lady...

 

[RabbitMage]

Okay, wait.

Shiba Inu:

Coyote:

Shiba Inu:

Coyote:

If you cannot tell the different between those animals, you shouldn't make your living working with them.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Rabbitmage - very true the pictures you picked out are very different in appearance - however in some areas coyotes have bred with domesticated dogs and now there are coydogs running wild - and they can have a varied appearance, size, and coloring (i.e. more red or more grey/brown).... However the shiba inu should never have been mistaken for a coyote - they have distinct characteristics and again - if this supposed coyote was 'friendly' and 'willing to go' - as an animal control officer I would have thought that would have sent off either doubt about it being a coyote or alarm bells if they were convinced it was - a friendly/unafraid of people coyote could be very dangerous and I would have hoped they'd had to sense to get wildlife's involvement instead of just releasing.

though animal control here is extremely stupid as well - so I guess its everywhere - lol.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

People are so stupid. One look at that dog and I knew it wasnt a coyote.

 

[Kansaseq]

SERIOUSLY?!

 

[thechickenchick]

Quote:
What she said!