Folk Singer Taylor Mitchell Killed by Coyotes
- Posted on Oct 29th 2009 7:14AM by Stephen Dowling
- Comments (506)
A teenage folk singer was attacked and killed by two coyotes in a national park in eastern Canada.Taylor Mitchell, 19, was attacked while she was hiking alone in Cape Breton Highlands Park, Nova Scotia, when she was attacked by two of the animals on Tuesday. She died of her wounds on Wednesday.
Nearby walkers heard her screams and alerted park rangers, who arrived on the scene and shot one of the animals. The other has yet to be found.
A police spokesperson said the two coyotes were "extremely aggressive" when rangers arrived on the scene.
"Coyotes are normally afraid of humans. This is a very irregular occurrence," Bridgit Leger, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told Reuters news agency.
Mitchell was airlifted to hospital in Halifax but died there. Paul Maynard of Emergency Health Services said she had been admitted with multiple bite wounds on her body.
"Words can't begin to express the sadness and tragedy of losing such a sweet, compassionate, vibrant, and phenomenally talented young woman," Lisa Weitz, Mitchell's manager, said. "She just turned 19 two months ago, and was so excited about the future."
Mitchell's debut album 'For Your Consideration' had been recorded earlier this year and the artist had been on a tour of eastern Canada when the attack occurred.
"She was so young and talented -- her big dreams were a perfect match with her big, kind heart," said Michael Johnston, the album's producer.
Biologists said attacks by coyotes -- also known as prairie wolves -- were extremely rare because the animals were usually very wary of humans. The area of the park where the attack happened has now been blocked of as officials try to find out what caused the attack.
Reader Comments(1 of 26)
Jasonat 10-29-2009
It's a sad situation....It's also pretty sad that no one has commented on this yet. It just shows how much influence the media has on pop culture and hip-hop rather than music that truly comes from the heart. How ignorant the world is......
snowbirdat 10-29-2009
I agree with you Jason, it is so sad. Taylor was so young and with her whole life ahead of her.
God bless her and her family.
Stephanieat 10-29-2009
I think it is even more sad that you are only commenting negativity about others not commenting. how does that make you any better?
My thoughts & prayers are with the Mitchell family.
Andriaat 10-29-2009
I completely agree with you Jason. If the article would have been about Jon and Kate or Obama people would have taken the time to say something nasty. Heaven forbid they use that time to send prayers out to this young woman's family or comment something sweet on the article.
Anyway, My prayers go out to her family. It's horrible to lose such a bright young woman with such great ambitions.
Nikki Pratherat 10-29-2009
Jason why would you want to take such a sad story and try to start an argument over it? People have the right to comment or not comment on anything they want. Just because someone doesnt comment about this DOES NOT mean they werent saddened by the situation. Please, use better judgement next time.
eightzeroat 10-29-2009
"It's a sad situation....It's also pretty sad that no one has commented on this yet. It just shows how much influence the media has on pop culture and hip-hop rather than music that truly comes from the heart. How ignorant the world is......" -Jason
You amazing exemplify your own statement of "How ignorant the world is..." with your own shocking ignorance of "hip hop rather than music that truly comes from the heart." You sir, do not know hip hop or hip hop culture. You sir, know MTV and BET and pop radio stations. That, sir, is not hip hop. Your soapbox is a false reality. You complain about pop culture, but then rely on it to gain your perception of hip hop culture. Hip hop has nothing to do with the pop rap you know. It's very sad that this happened, especially to a young person to die this way. Our thoughts go out to her family. And my thoughts go out to Jason, an ignorant man with a mouth to match.
ceat 10-29-2009
Hip Hop, dude? You delivered such a decent message and then you cap it off by bashing Hip Hop. People on spinners are all the same. media always glamorize hundreds of other tv personalities and other bull, but the first thing that comes to your mind is "Hip-hop". Don't get me wrong, Hip-Hop has many faults, but what's makes that any different from someone like Brittany Spears showing her "stuff" off on camera and having it on websites for the world to see or these slutty tv shows that half of you watch? A guy said "Spanish and or black guys in the NBA grow their hair long, have many tattoos and are thugs, but if a white guy grows his hair long, strut around in tattoos, they're "badass"(in a good way). I guess that's life.
If you're not from the "inner cities" you have your cold hard opinions.
If you have those opinions, you that energy and listen to real hip hop music. It's not that hard to search.
To Ms. Taylor, seem like a real nice girl. Very upsetting.
Emmaat 10-29-2009
So hip-hop is completly devoid of all emotion and meaning? Statements like that illustrate ignorance in its prime.
animal loverat 10-29-2009
Sorry but I am sick of people moving into or just going into the woods, the place that the animals live and when they are attacked it is the animals fault. We are pushing our wild life out into the open on a daily basis. If you dont want to be attacked by a wild animal then stay away from the only places they have to live.
crabbyjeanat 10-29-2009
The manner in which this girl died is definitely a horrific tragedy, a way no one deserves to go. I'm kind of torn between the two view points I've been predominately reading in the user comments. Part of me is frightened that these animals are becoming more aggressive and before long it wont even be safe to let your children play in the back yard (I say this because not so long ago a coyote was roaming around in my back yard in broad daylight, which was quite unnerving to me). At the same time, I'm sure more people get killed by cars than in animal attacks, but we don't necessarily go around shooting every car we see in the radiator to rid ourselves of the problem. We are definitely the ones to blame for any problems that arise with dangerous predators honing in on our "safety zones", we have been destroying their habitats for our own selfish needs for too long, and we have been anticipating these sort of repercussions for quite some time. As far as hunting the animals, however, I can't say I'm entirely against it. We have survived as hunters for thousands of years, the real problems with the environment arose when we strayed from hunting and gathering and became more technologically advanced. When we started clear cutting forests so we could raise a few hundred cows, forests that could have been hunted and would have supplied far more food from the wild game that lived there than the cows would ever provide. So I wouldn't be so quick to jump down a hunters throat about thinking the only real solution to the problem is to have open hunting on the animals. Hunters, for the most part, are as much an environmentalist as a hardcore vegan animal rights activist. A hunter wont benefit from entire forests being clear cut, and hunting is definitely a more sustainable way to feed yourself than buying meat at the grocery store. Meat from animals that lived in the disgusting conditions the animal rights activists fight so hard against. Blah blah blah... My point, anyways is this: The main thing wrong with the world is a lack of balance. Our problems don't stem from the hunter, as long as hunting is for necessity. Its fine to hunt for food, its fine to hunt to reduce the population of an animal that is posing a problem, not eradicate it entirely, just thin the population a bit (Think about how mad you'd be if you smashed up your new hybrid because the deer population was out of control). We have been around for just as long as most of the animals on earth, we have just forgotten the importance of coexisting. We live too excessively. If you spend most of the day on your computer, texting on your cell phone, driving around in your car... if you buy all of your food from grocery stores, don't care if your apples are flown in from China, just as long as you can have them in the middle of the winter you are as much of the problem as anyone else. I would say this applies to at least 70 of the population... me including... so there is no need to point the finger, you are probably just as much a part of the problem as the people you are blaming. When you realize this maybe then you can work harder to be part of the solution. Pointing the finger will never be a solution, however, it is merely a cowards way out.
Lillianat 10-29-2009
Jason I agree with you,
Carterat 11-04-2009
i agree with jason, well for the most part anyway, this is a terrible tragedy and a great loss of an artist; however, shifting the blame on hip hop for the lack of exposure of intellectual music is not a credible move, the hip hop i know is a lot more like folk music (the two genres are almost identical in sound and motive) than anywhere near the rap music that is forced to this generation
Markat 10-29-2009
Stehanie this is a response to your post, "I think it is even more sad that you are only commenting negativity about others not commenting. how does that make you any better?" Jason has the full right to comment about the death of this young artist in which ever way he feels, you in turn complain about his response then ask if he feels any better, my question to you is does attacking him about his thoughts on this girls death make you feel any better? What a punk you are.
Jackat 10-29-2009
Jason, someone always has to be the first to comment, no matter what article or who it is. The first commenter in any article whether it be about Michael Jackson, Kanye West or anyone else would also be able to say the same thing you said. What is really sad is that rather than use the first comment to say something truly nice about her, you instead used it to demean other human beings that had not yet had a chance to respond to the article. That's what's really sad. That so many people like you would rather use the space to beat down others than uplift.
joanat 10-29-2009
hiking alone doesn't that say enough,, sad but please use common sense
DOTTIEat 10-29-2009
My prayers to the family, may you find comfort in knowing how much she was loved and adored. Now, I really feel that this is not the time to be voicing(sp) ones political or not opinions. The family should be comforted during their mourning time while the Rangers do their investigation of why this tettible thing happened. Then maybe something can be done to prevent this from happening again. Please think of the family, this is a loss that they may never recover from and God knows will never forget.
Master Shakeat 10-29-2009
DON'T GO HIKING ALONE - simple lesson. Of course this was a terrible tragic death for this poor child, but seriously ... DON'T GO HIKING ALONE. There are many things that can happen - you can slip and get hurt so you can't move. You can run into any number of wild animals - including some psycho who's looking for a victim in the middle of nowhere. Even natives travel in groups.
Chris Mcgradyat 10-29-2009
I don't we should be concerned about how others are
morned because of their celebrity,I'm just sad because
this young lady was killed by animals that she may have
adored. The masses of peopple over the age of 40 wept
when elvis died.
iona rhoanat 10-31-2009
As a 74 year old mother grandmother, I always grieve
when these things happen to anyone.I often even now
go alone in my motorized wheel chair, but never in
to parks or the mountains. No no one should ever
go alone hiking or jogging in a park or wooded area,
especially women. We want to believe in America we
are safe and free, but the earth is a violent place and
invironmentally is causeing the humans and animals etc
to go more and more ill. We take the death of our young
too much for granted and I hope even as young children
are advised never to go alone anywhere that all of us
would learn to do that. I am trying. It isnt easy for
there is not always someone to help you. I think this
tells us just how dangerous the forests and the lonley
trails are and that we will all in our sorrow for her
and her family practice more safety now. Sincerely Iona
Rhoan
Trishaat 10-29-2009
Not every situation needs a comment.