A quick-thinking dad rescued his toddler daughter after a coyote tried to drag her away — and the entire scene was captured on home security camera.
The attack occurred on the family’s front yard in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Woodland Hills on Dec. 2. In the chilling video, Ariel Eliyahuo is locking his car when a coyote runs up and grabs 2-year-old Ariya, who had just exited the vehicle.
Eliyahuo hears Ariya’s shrieks and springs into action. He begins shouting at the coyote and manages to free Ariya from its grasp. He is also shown throwing a water bottle at the animal.
“I heard her screaming and and crying and I thought she fell down,” Eliyahuo told NBC4. He added that the coyote “came out of nowhere.”
Ariya's mother, Shira Eliyahuo, told NBC4 her daughter's "pants were stained with blood" and she had scratches on her body.
Ariya was treated at a local hospital where she received rabies shots, according to NBC4.
The coyote has not been captured, according to California Department of Fish and Wildlife Captain Patrick Foy.
“That dad absolutely did the right thing,” Foy tells TODAY.com. “Charging at the animal and shouting aggressively — he reacted perfectly.”
Foy notes that it’s “not common” for coyotes to attack humans.
“There were seven attacks in Los Angeles County this year, which is more than normal,” Foy says. “But the probability of being attacked is still very low.”
Ariya's clothing was sent to a forensic lab for testing so that DNA from saliva can be matched with coyotes captured in the area.
Foy suspects that the coyote in question was “acting on predatory instincts.”
"This particular coyote had been on our radar for about two weeks," Foy says. "On the day of the attack we had volunteers in the neighborhood going door-to-door trying to educate the community on how to best co-exist with wildlife."
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