A pet peacock and a 150-pound German shepherd were likely attacked and killed by coyotes on a Broomfield property, the same night a neighbor’s pug was attacked.
The attacks occurred late Sunday night or early Monday morning in the 14600 block of Irving Street, said residents and the Broomfield Police Department.
Two pet owners on the rural block said coyotes are a common sight and that the animals jump high fences to attack the pets.
“They’ve gotten more and more aggressive,” Broomfield resident Rosalie Cooper said of the coyotes. “They’ve gotten really bad.”
Cooper’s dog, a 7-year-old female pug named Meg, was among the pets attacked. Coyotes jumped a 4-foot fence to get her.
“She’s really tore up,” Cooper said.
John Fedorowicz, Cooper’s neighbor, lost a 3-year-old male German shepherd named Snow and a peacock.
Fedorowicz owns a 3-acre property surrounded by a 6-foot fence.
The peacock and Snow died the same night, and both pets had been “chewed up,” Fedorowicz said.
Fedorowicz didn’t see the attacks, so he’s not positive it was coyotes.
Cooper, however, has no doubt.
“They’re out there every night,” she said. “They just literally howl all night long.”
Last month, a woman was attacked by a pair of coyotes in Broomfield as she played Frisbee with her dog. Her Labrador retriever chased them off.
One of the animals in last month’s attack was tracked and killed by the Colorado Division of Wildlife. The other was not found.
The city of Broomfield, along with the DOW, held a public meeting earlier this month to raise awareness of coyote issues.
On the opposite side of the metro area, the city of Greenwood Village hired a contractor this month to shoot coyotes, city officials said. So far, the contractor has not reported any killings, said Lt. Joe Harvey, a Police Department spokesman.
Greenwood Village also is petitioning the Tri-County Health Department for permits to use leg traps on coyotes. The petitioning process is ongoing, and a decision has not yet been made, Harvey said.
Fedorowicz, who also owns chickens and keeps them penned in at night, said he’ll keep a closer watch on a new dog, if he gets one.
“I don’t know what you can do; I don’t want to kill coyotes,” he said. “They have to eat.”
Cooper, who owns another pug in addition to Meg, said she’ll be keeping her pets inside at night.
“I’ll let them out before I go to bed, then I’ll keep them in,” she said. “Our dogs will stay in now.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
