Coyote attack: Passing motorist saves woman and dog stalked by 3 animals in Vancouver's Stanley Park

Vancouver -

Five minutes into her daily walk with her dog Molly in Vancouver's Stanley Park on Monday, Keenya Pierre said, three coyotes appeared from the bush and attacked her pet.

The encounter happened on a trail near the baseball field, just past Prospect Point.

At first she only spotted one, and thought it was a dog. But when she saw two others hunched over and slowly creeping up, she knew they were coyotes.

Pierre told CTV News she only had seconds to think, and debated fight or flight, when they pounced on Molly.

“So I grabbed her by the collar and started kicking the coyotes that I could kick,” she said. “I started to scream like bloody murder.”

She yelled at her dog to go ahead, and for next 10 minutes the pack stalked Pierre. Initially all three stood in front of her, teeth bared, then two broke-off and circled her.

“It was terrifying, I won’t lie. It was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever had to deal with,” she recounted. “Here I am in the middle of Stanley Park, no one in sight, like no one. I was screaming for help and no one heard me.”

She was also throwing whatever she could find at the animals, but the coyotes refused to give up.

Finally at a clearing, she waved down a passing motorist.

“I picked her up and just put her in the truck. I didn’t care who that person was, I did not care. If they were going to kidnap us, I was like, she just needs to be safe in the truck,” Pierre said of Molly.

She and the dog are shaken but somehow not badly hurt. Even so, Pierre said there is “no chance” she will go into the park again, and is warning others, some areas of Stanley Park are not safe.