As holiday shoppers take to stores, a coyote lurking near a San Diego shopping mall mauled a 3-year-old girl and another child\u2014 sending them to the hospital, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 3-year-old girl was bitten on the arm and hip while the other child was also injured around 9 PM Tuesday near the Westfield UTC shopping mall in University City, according to law enforcement officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A coyote attacked a 3-year-old girl near the San Diego Westfield mall, sending her to the hospital. Autumn Sky \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
The mall houses high-end retailers like Nordstrom. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The attack happened at 4500 La Jolla Village Drive in the parking lot, less than a minute walk from the Westfield shopping center that houses high-end retailers like Nordstrom, Tommy Bahama, J.Crew, and Madewell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The children were rushed to the hospital, while officers from the San Diego Humane Society and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife tried to track down the coyote\u2013 to no avail, the SDPD said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers have collected DNA samples, which have been sent to the CDFW forensics lab for testing,\u201d The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said. <\/p>\n
While the coyote is still on the lam, officers from CDFW are working with USDA Wildlife Services to locate and capture the culprit. <\/p>\n
If you find yourself face-to-face with an aggressive coyote, the best thing to do is \u201chaze\u201d the canine by standing tall, waving your arms and yelling, accordion to the Humane Society.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHazing,\u201d or standing tall and waving your arms, can ward off a coyote attack. Harry Collins \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Using noise makers like horns, bells or whistles or spraying the coyote with water will also deter the animal, the Humane Society says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coyote may run away, but then stop after a distance and look at you. It is important to continue to haze the coyote until they completely leave the area,\u201d the Humane Society advises. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As holiday shoppers take to stores, a coyote lurking near a San Diego shopping mall mauled a 3-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1592,1794,7,74,76,75,42234,3586],"class_list":{"0":"post-71989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-animal","9":"tag-attack","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego-news","14":"tag-shopping-malls","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}