A coyote pounced on an elderly woman’s toy poodle in suburban Rye, killing the pet helplessly tethered in the back yard.
The nighttime attack is yet another sign of the region’s booming coyote population — which has seen the wild animals roam as far south as lower Manhattan.
“I put her outside on her long leash when I heard a loud scream,” Judith Sheer, 80, the owner of Cleopatra, said of the attack at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“I pulled her leash back and all that came back was her dog tags.”
The heartbroken woman frantically searched for her beloved 10-year-old pooch with a flashlight, but couldn’t find her.
Sheer then called the police who eventually found her dog. “They came back and told me, ‘Ma’am your dog is dead.’ ”
“These coyotes are getting out of hand,” said Cleo’s grief-stricken owner. “They are attacking a lot of the dogs and something has to be done.”
Ward Stone, a wildlife pathologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said the coyote’s presence “sounds pretty normal.”
“This is the time of year coyotes have babies, and a coyote with babies is not going to like a dog staked out in the vicinity of its den.”
Although coyotes are known to eat pet dogs and cats, it’s possible Cleo wasn’t a meal, according to Rye Police Commissioner William Connor.
Like Stone, he believes the coyote was acting naturally and said the department would not launch a hunt for the animal.
Last week, a coyote was loose in Manhattan — the fourth coyote sighting in the city this year.
It took 30 cops with a helicopter backup to finally corral the beast, since nicknamed Wally, in a TriBeCa parking garage.
Wally has since been released into Pelham Park in The Bronx, about 11 miles from Rye.
Stone added that people should contact authorities if a coyote is behaving abnormally, such as showing no fear of humans.