Four Chicago teens are charged with killing a coyote pup by shooting it with a bow and arrow, then stomping it to death in an incident that has a neighborhood reeling.
Police responded earlier this month to a call from the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park, USA Today reported. Authorities found the carcass after speaking to witnesses and reviewing surveillance video, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources told the outlet.
The four teens, all 16 or 17, are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 26. They’ve been charged with unlawfully hunting without supervision, hunting on lands without permission of the owner, unlawfully hunting within 100 yards of a home and abandonment of a wildlife carcass on private property without permission.
Neighbors were disgusted and dumbfounded about the senseless slaughter of an animal that had never caused any trouble.
“To be killed like that was just senseless,” David Kielbasa told Chicago’s WMAQ. “I couldn’t believe that people are desensitized like that.”
Kielbasa was the one who called police after the killing happened, and could not wrap his head around the horrific incident days later.
“It wasn’t even like a full-grown coyote. It was a puppy,” he told the station.
Coyotes are not known to be a danger to humans, though it is mating season until March, which might make them more visible, Chicago Animal Care and Control said in a statement.