Ian O'Reilly is being lauded as a hero having killed a coyote to save his two-year-old son's life in New Hampshire.
Ian O'Reilly and his family were walking along a nature trail in Kensington, NH, when they were attacked by the rabid animal at about 11 a.m., local police confirmed in a statement.
O'Reilly said that the animal bit into his son's coat, but failed to break the skin.
He told Boston 25 News that he got himself between the animal and his family and attempted to fight it off.
"I was able to put myself between the coyote and my family and from there it was a series of attacks from a pretty aggressive coyote," O'Reilly said. "It made it pretty clear that it was not going away."
O'Reilly, who said that the entire incident lasted over ten minutes, said that he was running on pure adrenaline and felt that he had no other choice but to kill the animal.
"What are you going to do and how are you going to protect your family is what it comes down to. I was able to get it squarely in the jaw with my boot and was able to jump on it and wrestle it to the ground. I shoved its snout into the snow and eventually expired it through suffocation."
The father of three was bitten twice in the struggle - once on the forearm and once on the chest - and will require five rounds of shots as a preventative measure against rabies.
Kensington police confirmed the attack and said that the same coyote had attacked two other people on Monday morning before its death.
First, it attacked a motorist at around 8:40 a.m. before Pat Lee, a 62-year-old Kensington resident, had to fight the animal out of her home and prevent it from killing her two dogs at 9 a.m.
Lee, who also sustained bites during the attack, said that the incident was traumatic but that it could have been a lot worse.
"I'm just really glad that they got the coyote. I was really scared for other people," Lee said.
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