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“These attacks are happening at all hours of the day, leaving the community on edge and fearing for their safety,“a news release from Liberty Village and Fort York residents said.

Early Friday morning, resident Madhumitha Balasubramani and her leashed dog were in a standoff with a coyote while out for a walk in a park close to her condo.

Balasubramani told the Star she took her husky-shepherd mix, Abby, who weighs more than 80 pounds, to Gateway Park on around 1 a.m. She was standing under a street light when the sight of a rabbit hopping away caught her attention. The next thing she knew, a coyote had come up from behind, cutting her and Abby off on the path they were following. 

When she realized they were face-to-face with a coyote, Balasubramani started “screaming really loudly, making myself big and making these big hand gestures so the coyote would get scared,” she said. But to her surprise, that didn’t work. 

“The coyote did not care,” said Balasubramani, adding that when she tried to move, the coyote would move with her or try to nip at her dog’s tail, which she says it succeeded at a few times.

Balasubramani said she was screaming and getting pulled around the park while desperately trying to keep hold of her dog’s leash for a few minutes before a man driving by heard her and stopped to help, initially honking his horn to scare the coyote away, then getting out and running over while yelling and clapping. 

Eventually two women from Balasubramani’s condo also came over to help, and it was only then that the coyote “freaked out and ran away,” she said. 

Once Balasubramani got back to her condo, she said a neighbour called 311 for her and noticed her finger was bleeding, which prompted her to go to the emergency department. She’s unsure whether she was nipped in the frenzy of trying to protect Abby, or if friction from the dog’s leash broke her skin, but she said she was bandaged up and given antibiotics.

Balasubramani said she was told by hospital staff that the chances of an Ontario coyote carrying rabies are low, so they didn’t think it was necessary to give her a rabies shot. She plans to get Abby checked out by her vet.

In the news release, another Liberty Village resident, Johanna Fox, described how she and her husband were followed by coyotes on multiple occasions while walking with their dogs and baby.

The second time it happened, Fox said a coyote grabbed her smallest dog “out of nowhere,” leaving her no choice but to kick the coyote to make it release her dog.

“We are terrified. Every walk is nerve-wracking,” she said in the release. “This is out of control.”

Balasubramani has lived in Liberty Village for the past three years, but said she only saw a coyote in the area for the first time a few months ago. She told the Star the demolition of Ontario Place often comes up in conversations about coyotes in the community, including from people who have lived in the area longer than she has.

“It’s just not normal,” said Balasubramani. “If you see, logically, what has changed, we’ve cut down 800 trees. We’ve destroyed their habitat, we’re taking up more and more of their green space,” she said. “I don’t think (the coyotes) are to blame. They don’t have anywhere else to go.” 

Coyote Watch Canada previously confirmed to the Star that a family of coyotes was known to live in the area before demolition work began.

Regardless, Balasubramani thinks the city needs to work out a solution, and preferably one that doesn’t harm the coyotes. “We shouldn’t be just letting this happen and waiting around,” she said.

In a statement to the Star on Friday, Carleton Grant, the city’s executive director of municipal licensing and standards said the city is concerned about coyote sightings in Liberty Village “and is working on a response that will have an impact.”

Grant confirmed the city has received a total of 34 complaints about coyotes in the area over the last two weeks.

Of those complaints, he said the city has verified four as “interactive coyote encounters.” One involved a coyote lunging at a dog, and three were attacks on dogs that left two of them injured and one dead.

Grant said the city has stepped up its response to coyotes in the community and that staff have been working in the area monitoring coyote activity every day and educating residents on coyote behaviour, so “both the community and wildlife can coexist safely and peacefully.”

The city does “its best to support wildlife in their natural habitat,” Grant’s statement said, but “if animal behaviour changes in a way that affects public safety, we will take a range of further actions after assessing all options available.”

The City of Toronto’s coyote response strategy is currently under review, with an update expected to come later this year.