What to Do If a Coyote Attacks Your Pet

This is general information, not veterinary, medical or legal advice. For an injured or aggressive animal, a bite, a pet attack or a suspected rabies exposure, call your doctor, your vet, local animal control, or the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD).

Reviewed by the editorial desk against the cited sources. The desk holds no veterinary or medical credential, so this page tells you who to call rather than how to treat an injury.

If a coyote has attacked your pet, the first call is to a veterinarian. This page is part of our guide to protecting pets and children from coyotes, and it sits beside our broader guide on how to handle a coyote sighting. Read the section order below as the order of priority: your pet’s care, your own safety, then reporting.

Step 1: Get veterinary attention for your pet first

Take your pet to a veterinarian or emergency animal clinic as soon as it is safe to do so, and call ahead if you can so the clinic can prepare. Tell them a wild animal was involved. That detail matters because the sources we reviewed treat any contact between a pet and a wild animal as a possible rabies concern, and a vet needs to know what happened to decide what comes next.

We deliberately do not publish first-aid instructions for wounds. We are an editorial desk, not veterinarians, and none of the agency pages we cite give home treatment steps for an attacked pet. Your vet or an emergency clinic can talk you through safe handling and transport by phone.

Wild-animal contact does not have to leave a visible wound to matter. The Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS) tells residents to keep pets away from wild animals and to vaccinate all dogs and cats against rabies. CDC says pet owners can lower their risk by keeping pets up to date on rabies vaccines and keeping pets away from wild animals as much as possible. If your pet’s vaccination record is out of date, say so to the vet right away.

Step 2: Protect yourself while you handle your pet

An injured, frightened animal can bite its owner. AZDHS advises wearing gloves if you handle your pet after a fight with a wild animal. The reason is that rabies is spread by contact with the saliva of an infected animal, usually through a bite wound, according to the AZDHS rabies quick-tips page.

If you were bitten or scratched, follow CDC and AZDHS wording:

• Wash the wound right away with soap and water. CDC says to wash for 15 minutes.
• Contact your health department and a healthcare provider. CDC says to tell them what type of animal was involved and whether it seemed to be acting abnormally.
• Visit your doctor and discuss anti-rabies treatment, as AZDHS advises. CDC says rabies is preventable but that you must get medical help right away.

If the animal may have bitten you or anyone else, do not delay care to find out whether the coyote was sick. Call a doctor and local animal control.

Step 3: During an attack that is still happening

Your safety comes first. If you believe there is an immediate threat to your safety, call 911; the UC Coyote Cacher page gives that same instruction for encounters with a threatening coyote.

For the encounter itself, AZGFD’s Living with Coyotes page describes what to do when a coyote approaches you: never approach the coyote, keep eye contact, yell or make loud noises with whistles, music or pots and pans, and do not run, because running can stimulate a coyote’s chase instinct. AZGFD also says to act as large and threatening as possible with aggressive gestures of your arms and legs or by waving an object, and to move toward an area with other people or a building. These are the agency’s methods for scaring a coyote away. Read our page on hazing techniques for the full list and the cases where you should not haze.

Be aware that the AZDHS quick-tips page, in its list of ways to prevent rabies, says not to try to separate two fighting animals. That is a rabies-exposure warning, not a tactical script for a live attack, and no agency page we opened tells you to physically intervene. If you cannot make the animal retreat from a safe distance, get to people or a building and call for help.

We do not describe weapons, projectiles, traps or any harm to the coyote. AZGFD says it does not relocate or remove coyotes except where there is a public-safety concern, and that lethal removal is a last resort for animals that attacked people or show predatory behavior toward people; it does not respond to pet-attack calls with removal. Confirm any rule with AZGFD.

Step 4: Report the attack

Call local animal control and AZGFD after your pet is in care. The AZDHS quick tips say to notify local animal control when a wild animal has bitten a person, and CDC says to call animal control about animals that seem sick or unusual. Reporting also helps agencies track a problem animal or neighborhood.

• Our local authorities page lists who to contact in Green Valley and Pima County.
• Our report a sighting explains what to have ready when you call: the time, place, what the coyote did and what happened to your pet.
• AZGFD’s 24-hour Communications Center for wildlife acting aggressively toward people is 623-236-7201 (AZGFD, accessed 2026-11-14). Local AZGFD offices are staffed 8 to 5, Monday to Friday; after hours and weekends a dispatcher takes calls. If the coyote is approaching or has bitten a person, call 911 and seek medical care.

Write down what you remember soon after the attack while the details are fresh: the time of day, whether the coyote seemed to be alone, whether it acted in a way that seemed unusual, and whether your pet was on a leash or in a yard.

Why attacks on pets happen

AZGFD says the pets most likely to be endangered are typically off-leash or smaller than 25 pounds, and that coyotes have taken cats and small dogs in the vicinity of their owners and occasionally right off the leash. AZGFD also says coyotes have been reported to attack larger dogs when they are in groups, or after one or two have lured a dog away from its owner.

The UC IPM Pest Notes on coyotes describe a pattern from California studies: increasing coyote activity on streets and in yards at night, then coyotes approaching adults or taking pets, then taking pets in daytime and attacking pets on leash or near owners. That is a California publication from 2007, but the sequence is a useful warning sign. If you see coyotes becoming bolder near your home, report it to AZGFD before a pet is hurt.

AZGFD says coyotes lose their natural fear of people when they are fed or when residents are indifferent, and that a regular food source in one yard keeps coyotes active throughout the neighborhood. AZGFD lists unattended pets among the things that attract coyotes, along with pet food, garbage and fallen fruit, and says bold coyotes have attacked small dogs on retractable leashes. It also says a 6-foot fence is not reliable protection, because coyotes are skilled jumpers. Feeding wildlife (other than birds and tree squirrels) is unlawful in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties under Arizona Revised Statutes 13-2927, according to AZGFD; some cities and counties have their own ordinances too. Checked on 2026-11-14; confirm with AZGFD.

After the emergency: reduce the chance of another attack

These steps come from AZGFD’s Living with Coyotes page unless noted:

• Supervise small pets at all times when outside.
• Allow pets off-leash only in enclosed areas, and only if the dog has an immediate recall response.
• Keep cats indoors or in a secure outdoor enclosure. AZGFD says that also protects them from other wildlife such as owls and hawks, from cars, domestic dogs and disease.
• Keep pets in a secure enclosure with a roof, or supervise them, when outside.
• When walking a dog, if you see a coyote, let the coyote know you are there. Gather your dog in your arms or keep it as close to you as possible, use the noise and gesture deterrents, and move toward an area of human activity.
• Remove attractants: do not feed wildlife, store garbage inside or in wildlife-proof containers, and feed pets inside or remove uneaten food between feedings. See our guides to removing food and water attractants, the coyote-proof yard checklist and coyote fencing for Arizona yards.
• UC IPM adds that pets should be vaccinated for rabies and other diseases as recommended by a veterinarian, because coyotes that contact domestic animals may transmit diseases.

Our coyote rabies facts explains what CDC and AZDHS say about rabies risk and what to do after any bite, scratch or pet-wildlife contact.

What AZGFD says about coyote behavior and seasons

AZGFD describes the coyote as a medium-sized, doglike canid, grayish-brown to reddish-brown, with large pointed ears, a long narrow nose and a bushy black-tipped tail. It gives a length of about 3.5 to 4 feet including the tail and a shoulder height of about 2 feet, and says Arizona coyotes typically weigh about 20 to 30 pounds, with males larger. Coyotes are opportunistic omnivores that eat rabbits, rodents, birds, snakes, insects, fruit and carrion, and in cities also garbage and ornamental fruit. They usually travel and hunt alone or in loose pairs. AZGFD says they mate from January to March and raise 4 to 7 pups in a den from March to May. That matters for pet owners because the pup season is a time to keep dogs leashed and away from brush and washes where a den could be. (AZGFD, Living with Coyotes, accessed 2026-11-14.)

Prevention steps AZGFD lists: keep small pets indoors or in a roofed enclosure, supervise pets at night and dawn, always leash dogs outside, feed pets indoors, secure garbage and put it out the morning of pickup, and work with neighbors. See AZGFD’s Living with Coyotes page and AZGFD’s April 2023 tips release.

What we could not source

Agencies we opened do not give a step-by-step first-aid method for an attacked pet, a specific waiting period or a vaccine schedule for a pet exposed to a coyote. For those questions, call your vet. We also could not confirm current Pima County reporting numbers from an open official page for this article, so check the local authorities page and the agency websites.

Last checked against the cited sources on 2026-11-14. Read our editorial policy to see how we review pages.