Woman says coyote menaced her, daughter, dogs on Crystal Cove trail

A Corona del Mar woman and her daughter said a coyote pursued them and their dogs for a quarter-mile on a Crystal Cove State Park trail Tuesday evening.

“It was crazy,” said Lisa Goon. “It would not leave us alone. It was surreal.”

The incident occurred about 6 p.m. when Goon and her daughter, Maddy, 18, decided to go for a run with their two dogs. They started running at the beginning of a trail near Pelican Point Drive, each with a dog on a 5-foot-long leash.

“Maddy is a faster runner, so she ran down the ramp and was going to wait by the bathrooms,” Goon said. “All of a sudden I heard panicked screaming and I saw someone’s arms flailing above the brush.”

Goon said she ran with her dog Bode toward her daughter.

She said Maddy was running with her 22-pound dog, Chloe, when the dog suddenly stopped, then pulled away from Maddy’s grasp.

A coyote that looked like a big German shepherd was on the path and appeared to be about to pounce on the dog, Goon said. Maddy lunged to grab the leash, scraping her knees, and came within a foot or two of the coyote. Then she and the dog turned and ran.

Goon said she ran toward them and maneuvered herself and her larger dog between the coyote and her daughter, but the coyote continued toward them.

“I raised my arms and roared,” she said. “It stopped, but it didn’t scare it away.”

She told her daughter to pick up the smaller dog and run.

“The coyote was interested in getting to that dog,” Goon said. “I stood there and roared at the coyote.”

Then she began backing away slowly, up the trail for about a quarter-mile, with the coyote following her a few feet away.

“I wasn’t turning my back on it,” she said. When she reached East Coast Highway, she said, the coyote finally turned and left them alone.

“I have run that trail a million times,” Goon said. “I’ve seen bobcats, but never anything like this.”

It was close to dusk but still light outside, Goon said.

Coyotes tend to show themselves at that time of day, said Valerie Schomburg, a Newport Beach Police Department animal-control officer.

Online police logs show a report of a “vicious animal loose” at East Coast Highway and Los Trancos at 6:39 p.m. Lisa and Maddy Goon drove home but did not immediately report the coyote to police. Details were not available about the later animal sighting.

A Crystal Cove State Park superintendent did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Goon said her daughter was brave.

“Her fight really kicked in, not her flight,” she said. “It was seriously scary, and she is seriously brave.”

Coyotes have been an issue recently in nearby cities.

Authorities in Seal Beach said they have euthanized three coyotes in the past week and will continue a trap-and-kill campaign for the next three weeks in an effort to bring coyote numbers down in response to several reports of pet killings.

Huntington Beach police said last month that there had been 98 reported coyote sightings this year, with eight reported pet deaths related to coyotes.

To keep coyotes at bay, experts recommend shortening pet leashes, feeding pets indoors, clearing overgrown areas where coyotes can take shelter, leaving ammonia-soaked rags around backyards to throw coyotes off pets’ scents, and hazing (scaring) coyotes by chasing, yelling and throwing objects at them.