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A 12-year-old boy who was bitten by a coyote in King Township on the weekend says it “scares” him that the animal is still on the loose.
Rocco Morra was bitten near Highway 27 and King Road in Nobleton at about 12:15 p.m. on Sunday. York Regional Police are warning residents to use caution after the attack. Police said there have been frequent sightings of coyotes since Morra was bitten.
In an interview with CBC Toronto on Monday, Rocco said he was sitting on the curb outside of his house on Sunday, waiting for a friend who was going to come early to his birthday party, when the coyote came upon him.
“All of sudden, I just feel something grab my leg, and then it dug deep, so then I looked at my side, and I saw it was a coyote,” he said.
“I tried to get up but then I couldn’t. And then when I finally got up, I started to run and it started to chase me… When I was at my porch, it just stared at me.”
Rocco said he went inside and screamed for his parents for help. He said he was in shock.
His mother, Deborah Morra, who was upstairs at the time, ran downstairs and couldn’t believe what had happened. Shes aid she saw the holes in her son’s leg.
“The blood was all the way down his leg. I ran to the cupboard and got the alcohol. I just doused the alcohol. I poured it all over his leg.”
His mom said she wrapped a tensor bandage to stop the bleeding.
Shortly after that, Rocco was taken to the hospital and he got antibiotics injected into each wound, which couldn’t be stitched, she said. Rocco also received a first round of rabies shot.
‘A coyote should normally be afraid of humans’
Now, Rocco says he is reluctant to go outside now because he doesn’t want to be bitten twice.
“I don’t really want to go outside because I really don’t want it to bite me again so it gets worse,” Rocco said.
David Boyd, a councillor for King Township, said there has been a spike in coyote-human and coyote-pet interactions in past two weeks.
Boyd said a girl walking in the area was approached by a coyote on Thursday and it grabbed her pant leg.
“A coyote should normally be afraid of humans. They don’t want to have that interaction,” he said. “But we believe in talking and working with our allied partners, with Vaughan Animal Service, Toronto Wildlife.”
In a Facebook post on Sunday, King Township said it is working with both agencies.
Boyd said Vaughan Animal Service and the Toronto Wildlife Centre believe that the coyote has learned behaviour and is coming into residential areas because there might be food sources there.
Boyd said the township is educating residents about prevention.
“We have to be mindful of making sure that if we have a gathering that we put the waste away, certainly that we’re not feeding these animals or feeding other animals. A feral cat would be an example, where we think it’s harmless, we’re feeding the cat, but you’re also providing a food source for the coyote,” he said.
Anyone who has video or photographs of coyotes in the area, including details abut the date, time and location of the sighting, is asked to contact Vaughan Animal Services.
“Please do not approach or attempt to photograph the animal directly,” King Township said.