Texas Toddler Gets Mauled By Coyote Outside His Home, Child In Critical Condition

A toddler in Texas was reportedly mauled by a coyote, while he was sitting outside his home.

The 2-year-old child was in a critical condition after being attacked by the animal Tuesday at around 8.30 a.m. ET, the police told the Washington Examiner. The boy was rushed to a hospital in Dallas immediately after the attack.

"It's gut-wrenching," a neighbor told the outlet. "That little boy was sitting on his front porch, and that animal came right up to the porch, unfazed whatsoever, and attacked him."

Another neighbor told the Washington Examiner the coyote stood across the street and stared at the emergency responders and parents tending to the victim, following the attack.

"[It] came out across the street and stood there, staring in the direction of where the EMTs and the parents were," the neighbor, Anthony Divenuti, told WAFF-TV.

The coyote was located in the nearby woods at around 3 p.m. ET. The police officer who spotted the animal shot at it, but it ran further inside the wooded area.

Residents were said to be very familiar with the coyote, which attacked the unidentified child. Some of them have reportedly fed the animal also, WAFF-TV reported.

"This tragic incident shows why it is critical that residents treat all wildlife as wild animals," a Dallas Animal Service official said.

The police had reportedly received several complaints about the coyote from other residents for weeks. One person told the Washington Examiner the coyote was planning to attack a child near an elementary school on Easter. "It looked like it wanted to attack a kid," the man told the outlet.

Coyotes rarely attack humans, and even if they do, it isn't likely to be fatal. Known to be a reclusive species, coyotes mostly avoid human contact. There have only been two recorded coyote attacks to date that resulted in deaths. One of the attacks that took place in the 1980s involved a little child, and the other happened in Nova Scotia in 2009 in which a 19-year-old woman lost her life. People, in case of a coyote encounter, are urged not to threaten the animal with sticks or other objects to prevent it from attacking.