Retriever Killed In The Woods—

What Happened To Snooker?

By Kendra Bobowick

Tetley, the German shepherd, was waiting on the lawn sniffing, salivating.

“Find Snooker,” Laura Morris prompted her shepherd, “Find Snooker.” The previous morning, on Friday, May 23, between 6:30 and 6:45, Ms Morris had let out her two dogs — Tetley and Snooker, a golden retriever — but only Tetley returned several minutes later.

She and her husband Stephen posted flyers and she took the day off from work to search for her 4-year-old pet. By the following day, Ms Morris appealed to Tetley for help. “I asked her to find Snooker,” Ms Morris said.

What she eventually found was “really, really awful,” she said.

Less than 200 feet from the door was a tree line surrounding the Morrises’ seven-plus acres including woods, which is where Tetley was headed. Less than 15 feet into the woods, Ms Morris saw tufts of fur and blood.

“There was a disturbance. I kept asking for Snooker,” she said, but at the sight of blood on the ground she called for Tetley to come back.

Later in the day, her husband “went and found the body,” she said. “There was no question that he was killed and dragged down the hill.”

Did coyotes kill Laura and Stephen Morris’s golden retriever?

Probably, but the only clue the couple has are tracks they observed on the ground. They had called the Department of Environmental Protection and local officials. Both she and Matt Shaub with the Newtown Animal Control office believe the tracks they found belonged to coyotes.

Is the animal’s habitat shrinking under development? Is its population too high for Newtown? What about children out at 6:30 am waiting for the bus? She wants answers to her concerns, which prompted calls to the media earlier this week. One observation: “People keep building, but there is nothing done to stop the coyotes — they have no predators left,” she said.

Thinking of her pet, Snooker, who was “so good, so gentle, and so well behaved,” she raised another underlying concern — the coyotes are getting bolder. “I understand the food chain; however, when two 80-pound dogs go out together and one is killed 150 feet from my door, what is if it was one of our grandkids?”

Animal Control Officer Carolee Mason is upset. “It’s absolutely terrible. The coyotes are being aggressive.” She is accustomed to warning pet owners to watch out for smaller breeds that predators may attack, but is surprised to find that she has to worry about larger animals. “I guess they’re going after the big dogs too…unfortunately, there is nothing we or the DEP can do.” Pet owners need to take precautions instead.

Ms Mason advises, “You have got to keep an eye on your dog. Be out with your dogs.” She also recommends an electric fence to prevent a household pet from entering coyote territory, for example. Wildlife Rehabilitator Billie-Jo Laufer also stresses that owners need to be outside with their pets and keep them in sight. “If people worry about their dogs, why let them out to roam?” she asked. With a Yorkie of her own, she said, “I do not let her out by herself.” She advises cat owners to keep their felines indoors and to “take the extra step” and go outside with the dog. Cautioning that a predator or protective mother could be near, Ms Laufer warned, “If you have woods behind you, you’ll have wildlife.”

With similar thoughts, Ms Mason stressed, “We live in Newtown, and we have to live with wildlife.”

Could Something Else Be In The Woods?

Other animals, including mountain lions and bears, are on Ms Laufer’s mind, for one, but no one can say for certain if coyotes or something else attacked Snooker. In recent years Newtown has seen moose and black bear, for example. Bobcats are becoming a more common sight, Ms Mason confirmed, and at least once a season a resident reports an animal they believe to be a mountain lion. As recently as earlier this month one homeowner contacted animal control with a sighting, and noted prints that may belong to a mountain lion. The DEP has not had any confirmed sightings, however. Ms Mason said she has never seen a mountain lion, but admits, “You don’t know what to expect in Newtown.”

With only the dog’s remains and tufts of fur and blood to lead them, Ms Mason and the Morrises are left to speculate. Are the tracks they think belong to coyotes left behind from the kill, or did the animals act as scavengers when they found the body? Were coyotes protecting a den of pups? Has the animal’s habitat shrunk as subdivisions replace open space and left them crowded and hungry? Did something larger take the family pet?

Ms Mason agrees that the answers simply are not clear.

Living With Wildlife

The Fund For Animals website, fund.org, offers help with understanding coyotes and foxes. With a series of questions and answers, the fund takes its readers through the common questions that residents ask. Is a fox or coyote rabid if its out during the day? The answer informs people that a daytime sighting is not unusual. The animals are opportunistic and will hunt when food is available. A homeowner may be shocked at the animals “brazenness,” which may only mean that it has found the cat food. Any unusual behavior may indicate that the animal is, in fact, sick. Contact animal control at 426-6900.

Will a coyote attack pets and children? According to the fund’s answer, attacks on humans are extremely rare and often are related to someone trying to feed the animals. Although they will occasionally prey on cats and small dogs, favored prey includes rabbits, mice, squirrels, rats, and human-produced food and trash. Coyotes do not hunt in packs. To help keep the animals out of your yard, keep trash in a secure container; keep meat out of compost heaps; cut back brush along property lines; clean up fruit that has fallen from trees; reinforce chicken and animals coops.

One final note from the fund is in line with one of the handful of theories about what happened to Snooker. The following remarks support the theory that coyotes found the dog’s body after the kill. According to The Fund For Animals information, coyotes are scavengers and the presence of their tracks around a dead animal does not necessarily mean that they were responsible for the kill. A few signs of coyote predation include bite marks around the head and neck of the dead animal and signs of struggle such as trampled vegetation.