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Video of a coyote’s death in a Houma retail store parking lot – after it was repeatedly run over by a pickup — is raising hackles among Internet viewers horrified by the cruelty of the actors.
(See full video of the incident by clicking here)
But cruelty to a member of a ubiquitous predatory species has not resulted in a rush to investigate by any local agencies. The incident drew a terse response from the state agency to which it was eventually referred.
“We are currently looking into it,” said Adam Einck, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries law enforcement division. “The only charges that could apply would be cruelty to animal charges.”
So far no suspects have been identified.
“The Buzz” – a Houma-based Facebook page featuring chatter on current events – first posted video of the incident, which was captured the night of Thursday, June 15 by a surveillance camera trained on the Best Buy parking lot on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The site’s administrator, Nicole Lirette, is a landscaper, and site manager for the lot. She said that Best Buy employees found the animal next to the store’s entrance – with a note atop it reading “RIP” – and carried it to the roadside.
Lirette viewed the store’s video with its manager and was horrified.
The recording shows a pickup driving in the empty lot. A figure appears on the lower left portion of the screen, a dashing animal, which is overtaken by the pickup mid-run and run over. As the injured animal struggles onto its feet the pickup travels in reverse, running over the animal again, then moves forward, running it over one more time. The truck stops and two figures get out. One stands over the coyote – which is either dead or dying – and takes a picture of it using a flash. The two return to the truck and take off.
“Instead of calling authorities they took it upon themselves to torture this animal,” Lirette said. “it’s bad because every living thing that was put on this earth by God deserves to not be tortured in that way. If there was proof this animal was doing something wrong proper authorities should have been called to handle the situation.”
Lirette posted a copy of the video on Facebook and it drew nearly 200,000 views along with hundreds of comments, most of them sharing her displeasure and pain. However, in the discussions several people questioned why there was a fuss over an animal seen as a predator. They noted that coyotes kill pets and are dangerous to people.
“My dog was attacked by coyotes a year ago but you don’t see me torturing animals because of that,” said Lirette, who was told by the store manager that additional video shows the coyote being dumped near the entrance. “I’m a hunter myself. We hunt to eat, we don’t hunt to torture. And we kill humanely.”
A sergeant from LDWF contacted Lirette Saturday morning asking for information.
Louisiana’s animal cruelty statute – RS 14:102.1 – makes it a crime to mistreat “Mistreats any living animal by any act or omission whereby unnecessary or unjustifiable physical pain, suffering or death is caused to or permitted upon the animal.”
Jeff Dorson, executive director of the Humane Society of Louisiana, said Friday that he has no doubt that statute applies to what happened in the parking lot.
“The statute does not distinguish between different types of animals,” Dorson said. “All the animals are covered under our state cruelty laws. They all have the capacity to suffer and experience pain. And we would encourage enforcement agencies whether the sheriff or Wildlife and Fisheries to pursue the investigation and prosecution of this case. We will follow up with both entities. It looked pretty deliberate to me. It certainly seemed intentional, it’s pretty clear it wasn’t random. The whole intent was to cause harm and mutilation. For law enforcement to take this lightly would be a disservice to the public and to public safety. Studies have repeatedly shown a direct correlation between animal abuse and later violence toward humans.”
The statute that bars animal cruelty has a provision mandating anger management or other related counseling for anyone conceited.
Ultimately, the decision of how and whether to prosecute lies with the District Attorney.
A Gonzales dairy farmer, Tut Henry, financed a $1,000 reward Lirette is willing to pay out to someone who identifies those responsible.
“I do farming and rodeos and I hunt and fish but what was done to that poor little animal I do not condone,” Henry said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Nicole Lirette at (985) 637-2421 or Times Senior Staff Writer John DeSantis at (985) 413-9889
