SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — A North County coyote was returned to the wild after recently being nursed back to health. The animal originally was found by a Rancho Bernardo woman with its head stuck inside of a tube.
Katie Ryan took a video of the animal in distress with a thick plastic tube around its neck back in April and reached out to the Department of Fish and Wildlife who put her in touch with Fund for Animals in Ramona.
"She was so skinny and just so torn up," said Katie. "Her skin was just hamburger meat. This poor thing was in bad shape.
Katie was familiar with the animal and its pack who had been hanging around her home for awhile. She says she was happy to see them as they would catch rats, mice and other things in the area.
Fund for Animals sent staff members to Katie's home equipped with nets to set up around the area of her home. But the team had no luck catching the creature that time.
Then in late May a professional animal trapper's cage in Katie's yard was able to capture the coyote who was transferred to the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center. Experts removed the tubing from the coyote's neck, gave it antibiotics and pain medications. Over the next four and a half weeks the animal was nursed back to health.
Then on Friday the coyote was returned to its natural habitat by The Humane Society - and Katie was there.
"It was amazing," she said. "She ran straight down the valley."
Katie said that night she heard the sounds of coyote pups and believed the family was back together. The next night she even spotted the coyote back with its pack in her yard, as if nothing had happened.
The Humane Society provided this video of the animal's release:
Pictures of the coyote's road to recovery courtesy of The Humane Society:
How the animal was originally found with tubing around its neck
Coyote being cared for by The Fund for Animals
Crews transporting the coyote
Coyote inside crate before release
The coyote trotting back to nature
A happy and healthy coyote returning to the wild
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