You heard correctly. There have been 3 coyote attacks on small children in California with one fatality. It is believe their small stature, hi pitched voices and sometimes awkward movement triggered the attack responce similar to rabbits. The irony is coyotes are expanding from a small western territory to the far reaches of Alaska/ Canada north, Central America south and to the eastern seaboard. Why? their natural control,the wolf was eradicated and they are filling the niche. Wolves are thought to have entered into a mutually beneficial relationship with early hunting society humans. In fact, anthropologists have studied wolfpacks to postulate early human social behavior because of the close parallels. Eventually some wolves became our domestic dog, which shares the same, though radically rearranged genetic structure. Sadly, when Gilgamesh fought the Wildman the wolf also lost out. Domestic animals partly displaced game and our old partners became rivals. Ironically while there is no fully documented healthy wolf kill, there are several of wolves actually helping people. One man stranded in a snowstorm was kept alive by huddling wolves and the wild child of India was found with wolves ( and the inspiration for Kipling's Mowgli.) Wolves become scapegoats for collapsing game herds just as their pinneped cousins are suddenly responsible for collapsing fish stocks after timeless association WITHOUT PEOPLE. If these wolves ( or were they coyotes or even coydogs?) killed his dog, it was a natural reaction to territorial invasion. Wolves in a firestorm always run to safe ground. They just don't stick around eating tents. The man was disoriented by fire, ingested a flower? and had no wounds? Farley Mowat couldn't write a better tale.