A mother and daughter in Surprise, Arizona, survived a frightening coyote attack that turned an ordinary afternoon into a desperate fight.
Brittany Cardinal said she fought off the aggressive animal with the only thing she had in reach — a flip-flop — after it went after her 4-year-old daughter.
“We had gone outside because it was windy. And my daughter’s like, ‘Oh, let’s fly a kite,’” Cardinal told WWNY-TV, describing the afternoon of Sept. 6.
What began as a simple moment of play quickly shifted into a terrifying encounter outside their home.
Cardinal said she heard her little girl scream, turned around and saw a coyote biting at the child.
Instinct took over immediately.
“I picked her up, of course,” said Cardinal, 35. “And then I started yelling at it, thinking, of course, it was going to go away, but then it didn’t.”
The animal stayed put.
So did the Arizona mom determined to protect her child.
With no weapon nearby, Cardinal yanked a flip-flop from her foot and began swinging it at the coyote while shouting, hoping the noise and movement would drive it away.
“There was no hesitation at all. I don’t even think I thought about anything. I think you, like a mom, try to protect your kid,” she recalled.
In the chaos, Cardinal fell to the ground. The coyote then lunged and bit her in the face, clamping down on the mother who had thrown herself between the animal and her daughter.
“I always hear people say, ‘You don’t feel the pain when trauma like that happens,’ and I mean, I really didn’t feel any pain. I just felt like the pressure of it,” Cardinal said.
Even injured and bleeding, she continued to battle for their lives.
Cardinal and her daughter were finally able to back away from the beast and make a run for their home and help.
The maddened mom suffered lacerations and puncture wounds to her face, but thanks to her quick thinking, her daughter came through the harrowing ordeal unharmed.
Arizona Game and Fish officials told the news station the bizarre attack was the first recorded coyote attack on a person in the Phoenix area since December 2023, and they don’t know what triggered it.
Wildlife officials have removed several coyotes from the area and are testing them for rabies.
Cardinal did exactly what a person should do if a coyote attacks.
“You fight back, you yell at the animal, be loud with it, throw rocks, whatever you have to do to get that animal to just run off,” said Alex Flickinger, public affairs community liaison for Arizona Game and Fish.
Cardinal’s not taking another chance. She’s now armed with pepper spray — at all times.
