Woman punches off coyote attack

SAINT-CHARLES, New Brunswick, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- A Canadian woman in New Brunswick saved her puppy's life by getting into a vicious scrap with a coyote in her back yard.

Marie Simon took her puppy outside very early Wednesday morning and noticed the dog kept trying to run back into the house, The (Moncton) Times & Transcript reported Thursday.

She said she heard a snarl, turned and saw the coyote flying towards her.

"It was going over me and I just grabbed the fur, of course it was going at the puppy. It tried to bite me in the face and I punched it," she told the newspaper.

While grappling with the coyote, Simon was able to throw her puppy more than 10 feet away. She said when the animal tried biting her neck, she threw a punch with her left fist that connected with its jaw and sent it yelping away down a path, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said.

The scrap left tufts of the woman's long hair in the snow, although she required only a bandage for cut knuckles and a tetanus shot at the hospital, the reports said.

The Department of Natural Resources gave Simon permission to set traps on their land in case the coyote returns, the newspaper said.