The Riverside County Animal Services in California posted a video on Twitter of wildlife officers removing a nine-month-old coyote that had run into a middle school bathroom on Monday morning.
The incident happed at Mission Middle School in Jurupa Valley and animal services said they got the call about the coyote right before 9am.
A staff member at the school said the coyote was spotted running into an open bathroom and to protect the students, they shut the door and called animal services.
Officer Will Luna was the first to arrive on the scene and he was able to lasso the scared creature and carefully place it in a cage in the back of his truck. Officer Luna then took the coyote to a rural area away from the school where it could safely be released.
Officer Will Luna removed a coyote from @JurupaUSD’s Mission Middle School. No one hurt. The coyote was essentially shooed away by staff and it zipped into open door before start of school. Staff kept bathroom off limits, of course. Coyote released into the wild. @RivCoNow pic.twitter.com/BsZT9o7Boy
— RivCO animalSERVICES (@helpinRIVcoPETS) October 3, 2022
School staffers told animal services that the coyote had been seen multiple times on the property but this was the first time it actually came inside the school.
“We are pleased that this incident was smooth and all the children were OK and we were able to get the coyote back to its more natural habitat,” Animal Services Director Erin Gettis said in a news release.
Director Gettis also added that this is an opportunity to remind the staff, students, and residents in the area that Riverside County has a lot of natural open areas and interaction with wildlife is going to occur.
“There are dedicated wildlife corridors and other open spaces, such as green belts, and these are areas where animals live,” Gettis said in the news release. “Due to population adjacent to these natural, open spaces, we are going to have encounters.”