Coyotes.... Coming soon to the woods near you?

I put these pictures up on another post a few months ago. This is a coyote trapped on a friends land in Forsyth county a little while ago. I generally dont think these animals are a threat to humans. This one was hurt and cornered.

While I was in High Point Yesterday visiting family, a friend of mine called to tell me about his coyote encounter. He hunts on a farm in north Raleigh that backs up to Interstate 540. My in-laws live in a neighborhood about 1.5 miles away from there with lots of people and pets. Yesterday, my friend was out at the farm working on his food plots. He had finished up his work for the day and was riding around the property with his dog Bennett in his camo gator. He saw motion off to the side and thought it was a deer so he stopped. He sat there for a minute until he saw movement again, this time he could tell it wasn't a deer and it was walking towards the gator. When it got close enough he realized it was a coyote and they had a stare down for about 10 minutes. The coyote apparently couldn't figure out what it was looking at. Then Bennett, an extremely small white English Setter jumped out of the gator. Mike said immediately the coyote charged with a full head of steam, when Mike jumped out of the gator it stopped and ran off in the other direction really fast. However within 10 seconds Mike happened to turn around and saw the same, or possibly another coyote stalking Bennett from behind. He turned and took a step towards the coyote now at 20 yards and it instantly fled not to be seen again.Although they are not very big most of the time, Coyotes are known to be pet killers, no doubt it could have its way with Bennett who weighs in at around 30 lbs.The Eastern Coyote which inhabits our area usually weighs between 30 and 50 lbs and stands on average 20-24 inches at the shoulders. Northern Coyotes tend to be larger. It is a good thing that it seemed to still exhibit a fear of humans but this is not the first story I have heard like this, and recently these sorts of encounters are becoming the norm. I have had a few encounters with Coyotes, but only in the western part of the state, and none of them where threatening to me. What, if any action should be taken to control these wild dogs? I know for a fact I am going to start hunting them since there is no closed season for coyotes in our state. Look for more info on this topic soon, I want to research this problem a little more. Do a quick google search of Coyotes in your area and see what comes up, you might be surprised.

-Andrew