These dogs look like little punk rockers... sure those vests are a fashion statement but their owners have a real use for them — to prevent coyote attacks.
Paul Mott, an engineer, quit his former job so that he and his wife Pamela could create the Coyote Vest. Made from Kevlar tested for bite strength, metal spikes and those pointy prongs. They sell as many as a hundred vests every few days — an indication of dog owners’ fears, as coyote attacks are on the rise.
Sadly Paul and Pamela started the company after their own loss — their 6-year-old Poodle mix Buffy was killed by a coyote four years ago.
“I was trying to get my dogs in the car to go home. I had two of them in the car, and I heard a ‘yelp’ and I turned around and my third dog Buffy was in the jaws of a coyote,” says Mott.
The vests are designed in San Diego and manufactured in Orange — fitting of the growing coyote problem in Southern California.
Most recently, a 3-year-old child was bitten in Placentia. This in addition to dozens of recent reported attacks on pets.
Coyotes are becoming more brazen. Their populations can compensate for a few being killed or dying from disease, with high reproduction rates. Trying to shoot them can be dangerous to neighbors and trapping them is fleeting. Nothing can prevent a coyote from taking a dog if left unattended.
“Wearing it is going to give you more chances of survival against an injury or death than it would be without,” Mott's wife Pamela says.
No one knows this better than Tiffany Chiu, who runs an equestrian facility in Rolling Hills Estates. Her 11-year-old Chihuahua mix Hero was taken by a coyote in August. He was wearing a Coyote Vest but got out of the Tack room and when she heard the attack it was too late.
“Really the solution is you can’t have your pets outside in the yard unless you’re supervising them. And on a leash or really close because it can just happen so quickly.”
But Tiffany says she thanks Paul and Pamela for the Coyote Vest because the coyote problem isn’t going anywhere. They’re fighting the good fight.
“We always say if we can help save one life, we’ve made a difference to that family and Buffy’s legacy lives on,” says Pamela.