Having grown up surrounded by coyotes, and being in relative harmony with them, it's always a trip when people are suddenly realizing coyotes are everywhere and watching them freak out and either over exaggerate visciousness, or act like it's some weird, unusual sign.

Coyotes will kill your cat or small dog. My family lost 5 or more cats to coyotes. It's part of my staunchly "indoor only" reasonings.

We've watched coyotes hunt small dogs. We've watched them be scared away by large dogs.

Coyotes are all over the US but your region affects the type of coyote you run into. In the Northeast you have the Eastern coyote which has generations of historic and recent interbreeding with wolves. They're larger and have different behaviors.

Still they only top 40 pounds.

While it's true a large pack of coyotes, especially eastern ones, could take down a (often sickly) deer or elk... they primarily eat rabbit-sized critters. This is why your cat or doxie are at risk.

Apparently more people are killed by golf balls than are bitten by coyotes.

This is why I side eye all of those, always secondhand, stories of particularly viscous coyotes out to ATTACK their child or great dane or something, or killing their large, healthy livestock.

Especially because people are notoriously very, very bad at identifying animals.

I CERTAINLY believe the neighbor posting about a coyote trying to kill their two 12 pound dogs today. But a story about a coyote killing multiple large dogs, or growling at kids...
I'll assume a feral/escaped large mean dog, probably gsd or husky cross.
Not your local LA coyote.

Also in many locations in the us, there are mountain lions who WILL kill a large dog, or a fully grown sheep, although they are much, much more shy than even coyotes so you could live in harmony your whole life and not see one. One lives up near Griffith Observatory in LA.

So should you be scared of coyotes? Really, you shouldnt. Dont mess with them, keep your cats and small dogs indoors, and put a coyote harness on your tiny dog on walks and then there's no more need of fear mongering. Coyotes are pretty cool, and also shy of humans.

Uh, so this wasnt meant to be a #dailyKikiFact but it accidentally IS, so heres a link to my coyote pin!

I'll do a full write up later! http://Www.etsy.com/listing/774018321/big-and-wild-dogs-howling-coyote-gold