Folk singer killed by two coyotes

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This article was published 29/10/2009 (6137 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HALIFAX — A young Canadian folk singer who had just set off on a solo tour to boost a promising musical career died Wednesday after being mauled by two coyotes in what is believed to be one of the country’s first fatal attacks by the animals.

Taylor Mitchell was hiking alone in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park on Tuesday afternoon when a pair of coyotes attacked her, leaving her critically injured with bite wounds covering most of her body.

The 19-year-old singer’s screams for help were heard by at least two other hikers, who rushed to the Skyline Trail and called 911 at around 3 p.m. as the animals continued their brutal attack on the young Toronto woman.

Mitchell, who was on a three-week tour of the region to promote her debut CD, was to play in Sydney, N.S., on Wednesday night when she decided to go for a hike in the scenic park.

"She loved going into the woods and hiking," Lisa Weitz, her manager in Toronto, said through tears. "She was absolutely pumped about her first tour on the East Coast and to take her songwriting craft to new audiences… She just had a wonderful joy of life and sharing music."

Mitchell was rushed to a local hospital and then airlifted to Halifax. She died at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, police said.

Paul Maynard of Emergency Health Services said she was already in critical condition when paramedics arrived on the scene and was bleeding heavily from multiple bite wounds.

"She was losing a considerable amount of blood from the wounds," he said. "This was really out of the ordinary — the first I’ve heard of something like this."

RCMP Sgt. Brigdit Leger said officers shot one of the two animals, apparently wounding it, but both managed to get away.

An official with Parks Canada said they barricaded the entrance to the trail where Mitchell was attacked and were trying to find the animals to determine what prompted such an unusual attack.

Helene Robichaud, the park’s superintendent, said there have been a handful of reports of aggressive coyotes over the last 15 years, but they have not seen any attacks on people. "We certainly never have had anything so dramatic and tragic."

The provincial Natural Resources Department said there is no other record of a fatal coyote attack on a human in Nova Scotia since the animals were first discovered in the province in the ’70s.

Ethel Merry, who manages a motel 10 kilometres from the park in Cheticamp, said people in the area have been seeing more coyotes in the last three years and are calling for controls on their numbers.

 

— The Canadian Press