A Vancouver dog owner is mourning the loss of his beloved dog, Lulu.
“Sunday evening, my friend Mo and I were walking my dog through Trout Lake here, where I walk my dog two or three times a day,” Travis Olson told Global News.
He said Lulu, a four-and-a-half-pound Chihuahua, was off-leash, but he usually walks her that way and it was still light, so he could see his surroundings clearly.
After walking around for about 20 minutes, it was starting to get dark and they headed for home, but he said there were lots of people around and Lulu wasn’t far from them.
“We heard a squeak, and I looked over and just could see her light being shaken back and forth,” Olson said, explaining that his dog had a flashing light on her harness.
“And I started screaming, and I started chasing after them, and chased as fast as I could, obviously. And I just watched that coyote take my dog in that flashing light all the way to the lake.
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“And her cry stopped, and the light disappeared, and I knew she was dead.”
He said Lulu was his closest companion, his emotional support animal and he was always excited to come home to her.
He rescued her when she was a year old and had her for the past nine years.
“I just can’t help but think that she deserved better,” Olson said.
“She was sweet. She loved other people. She loved everybody. She loved the other dogs. She was known in this park and in the community.”
Angela Haer, a commissioner with the Vancouver Park Board, told Global News that they are working to get signs to warn people about the coyote activity.
“We are working closely with the B.C. Conservation officer and city staff to get signage,” she said.
“We’re gonna be collaborating with them and to make sure that people are a little bit more aware of coyotes.”
Coyotes fall outside of the City of Vancouver’s regulations as they are protected under the Provincial Wildlife Act.
Olson said he wants Lulu’s legacy to be one of awareness.
“I want awareness,” he said.
“I want people’s animals and children to be safe.”
He added that he has received an outpouring of support from the community and has heard from others about close encounters in the city with coyotes.
“I’ve been calling on the Conservation Officers Society to be more diligent in things like signage, simple signage,” Olson said.
“There is not a single sign in this park warning people of coyotes.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
