Go ahead and add “wild, rabid coyotes” to the list of things in Las Vegas that could get you.
“Overpriced buffet food” and “rigged slot machines” were already on that list, and those don’t seem all that bad compared to getting attacked by fearless coyotes.
Police in Henderson, Nevada are trying to get the word out about recent attacks that have happened so often, they’re actually becoming a serious point of concern.
Authorities are stressing that it’s very important to avoid feeding coyotes. Wild animals become more likely to approach humans if they’re fed by them, and that’s why the Henderson Police Department believes coyotes have attacked four separate times in recent weeks.
The department put out a message on their Facebook page, saying:
Of the four incidents, two of them have happened with people doing normal, everyday activities. One young girl was walking out of grocery store when she was attacked, and another woman was sitting on a park bench when a coyote ran up and bit her.
Henderson’s police department went on to inform why they are so serious about these warnings in their Facebook post:
“Coyotes are rabies vectors and due to people feeding them they have become a threat to public safety. People who are bitten have to undergo rabies vaccines because of the bites. Rabies is a fatal disease to both animals and people.”
It’s always been said that “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” but that saying doesn’t apply to contracting rabies from a wild coyote. That would definitely travel with you outside of “Sin City” if you didn’t immediately take care of it.
Seems like a increasingly simple solution to this problem though. Stop feeding the coyotes, and they will not randomly run up to you and attack.
Because things are never that easy, the authorities in Henderson are exploring raising fines for feeding coyotes to an amount over $600.
