Coyote bites girl in Whitehorse

A coyote bit a seven-year-old girl outside the Canada Games Centre Saturday afternoon.

The girl has since been treated and released from the hospital.

Art Manhire, the manager of indoor facilities at the centre, said his staff responded when they were told about the incident.

"When this happened, the mother of the child was there and they approached staff, and staff were able to go out and they called the RCMP and conservation. And they came over and they were concerned about the behaviour of this animal and that it didn't leave the area and they were able to put the animal down," said Manhire.

Manhire said garbage bins by the centre are locked and emptied regularly. But in the wake of this incident, he said they'll take a look and make sure there isn't other food or garbage being left out on the grounds.

Vicki Sahanation was leaving a fitness class just after it happened.

"I was just coming out the door and there was a woman, the mother of a child, who was calling for help and her daughter was crying and I said what? And she said, oh a coyote just bit my daughter and continued to exclaim," she said.

Sahanation said she went back into the centre and asked staff to call for help.

Games Centre manager Art Manhire said the coyote refused to leave the area and had to be destroyed.

Yukon Environment conservation officers have taken the coyote's body and will perform a necropsy. They will be checking its stomach contents, and whether it was suffering an infection, such as rabies.

There's no word on the girl's condition.