Lauren Allard, 7, and her dog, Kelly, a yellow American Labrador.

Photo courtesy of Allard family

When her 7-year-old daughter came running into the backyard screaming “A doggie was trying to drag me into the woods!” Denise Allard knew it was no dog.

The sun was quickly setting and, as she rushed her crying daughter inside and rolled up the girl’s sleeve to check for bite marks, Allard had just one animal in mind: coyote.

Allard and her neighbors on Prudence Island have seen plenty of them this year. Once, she heard eerie yelps and cries while a pack attacked prey. Then there was the time a coyote just stared at her from her neighbor’s backyard, lying on a mound and not running away until her neighbor grabbed a rifle and popped off an errant shot.

This time, Allard said, the coyote might have made off with her daughter, Lauren, if it weren’t for Kelly, the family’s yellow Labrador, which fought off the coyote. Lauren was unharmed and Kelly also appears to have escaped largely unscathed.

Still, the Dec. 30 incident marked the first reported coyote attack on a human in Rhode Island since the animals first arrived here nearly 50 years ago, according to Charles Brown, principal wildlife biologist for the state Department of Environmental Management.

However, he cautioned that no adults witnessed the incident, making it hard to know exactly what happened or to even know for certain that it was a coyote.

“It’s very disturbing, I know, to the mother and the girl. I’d like to be able to continue to say — not just to make my life easier — that we’ve never had [an attack],” he said. “Up until now, I’ve always said, ‘Just be careful. It’s not likely to happen.’ ”

While “it’s always a possibility,” Brown said, “I don’t necessarily think it’s a trend.”

But Allard said that she and her neighbors have definitely noticed some disturbing trends on their peaceful island in the middle of Narragansett Bay. Cats have disappeared. Foxes, once common, are a rare sight. Raccoons no longer forage through garbage. And deer, which Allard hunts with a crossbow, are vanishing, too.

“We went from having a lot of deer to no deer,” said Allard, recounting how a hunter the other day came upon the fresh carcass of a fawn in a stream not far from her house. “He said it was a bloodbath.”

Meanwhile, she and her hunting buddies have seen lots of coyote tracks at both ends of the long, narrow island, as well as impressions in the dirt indicating places where the coyotes rest in the sun.

“I know they are at the south end and I know they are at the north end,” said Allard, who has lived on the island for 10 years.

It was 4:15 on Dec. 30 and darkness was falling fast. “I heard the dog barking frantically and Lauren screaming,” Allard said.

Her daughter had gone across a narrow street behind her house to a wall that borders state-owned woods. Now, she was running home with Kelly and crying.

The girl said that a dog by the wall had suddenly lunged at her and grabbed her arm in its mouth. The animal was tugging on her until Kelly jumped into the fray. Lauren thought Kelly had bitten the other animal and that Kelly might have been bitten, too. [Kelly weighs about 80 pounds. Coyotes range from about 20 to 30 pounds.]

“I was shaking. She was shaking,” Allard said. “It was shock. I was numb.”

Once inside, Allard could find no bite marks on Lauren’s arm. And their dog, up to date on its vaccinations, appeared to have sustained only a slight mark under the chin.

Volunteer firefighters from the island tended to Lauren, but Allard declined having Portsmouth paramedics visit by boat. She said she consulted with Lauren’s physician.

Allard believes the coyote wasn’t rabid and was simply acting in the brazen fashion she has already witnessed on the island. Brown, the state wildlife biologist, said rabies has not tended to be a problem among coyotes in Rhode Island, whose populations have risen dramatically since first arriving here in the 1960s.

“These animals aren’t supposed to be coming as close as they are. I haven’t let Lauren out since the incident,” Allard said. “It’s sad. She should be able to go out in the backyard. Attacks only take a few seconds. These are sneaky animals. They stalk.”

Allard would like to see the DEM react to what is happening on Prudence Island. Brown said he may take up her request that he visit for a day to look around and talk to residents. But that alone isn’t what Allard hoping for. Killing coyotes is, she said.

One resident, she said, shot two coyotes enticed by the turkeys he raises.

That’s perfectly legal, said Brown.

“Residents are within their rights to protect themselves,” he said. For coyotes, “There’s no closed season.”

Allard is more interested in authorizing a few select hunters with extensive knowledge of the island to shoot coyotes.

“I believe in the ecosystem and how it works,” she said, “but I believe we have a problem out here on the island.”

rsalit@projo.com