Bald eagle swoops and snatches puppy from porch

This is a dramatic if not disturbing video of a bald eagle swooping down onto the porch of a home, snatching a Yorkie puppy and carrying the animal away. It ends well because the puppy manages to escape and, in the video, the last thing that we see is the puppy racing into their home crying. However, it might have turned out far less well. I researched how often this kind of thing happens in North America. The video was made in British Columbia, Canada.

As the video may disturb some people I have it on a separate page with no adverts. Please click on the link:

Bald eagle swoops on Yorkie puppy and takes him away

I couldn’t find any real information about the prevalence of this kind of predation by bald eagles in North America. My cat website visitors have told me about kittens being swooped on by predatory birds when they are resting on a balcony of an apartment. That sounded extraordinary but it is certainly plausible. In fact my cat website has several articles on bald eagles attacking pets.

Here are a couple:

In 2017 there was a discussion on one North American website about eagles attacking puppies. There was a certain amount of disbelief as to whether two eagles working in tandem could pick up two Pomeranian dogs. While the owner tried to protect one of her dogs another eagle divebombed the other. The story wasn’t confirmed but it also seems at least plausible.

Another story from North America dating back to May 28, 2017 recounts an eagle taking a small Chihuahua at Island View Beach in Central Saanich, British Columbia, Canada.

At that time, Myles Lamont, a member of the Hancock Wildlife Foundation which operates live-streaming eagle cams in 400 locations said that this sort of divebombing of pets by eagles had been known to happen. And he said that a big female could certainly do it.

The question was whether the birds were intentionally preying on small, furry animals. It seems to me that they absolutely were preying on small furry animals as the video on this page illustrates.

Myles also said that in a few nests that he has been involved in inspecting, remnants of cat collars and cat fur were found.

Vancouver Island is one of the most important pathsways for migratory birds including bald eagles. The south coast of British Columbia has a higher density of bald eagles with about 30,000 birds passing through the province annually, twice a year. Nowhere else in the world experiences these kind of densities.

There may also be a loss of nesting areas for the bald eagle which forces them to travel elsewhere and therefore prey on animals that are untypical.

It seems that the video on this page was captured by a security camera attached to the home.

The lesson learnt is clearly that there is a rare but real risk of a dog being treated as prey by a bird of prey. In North America dogs and cats are subject to attack by predators which is a motivating factor to keep cats inside and small dogs on a lead and supervised. In the UK this kind of predation doesn’t exist.

Once again, as this image might be a bit disturbing to some people and advertisers, I have another page where there are no adverts. Please click on the link below to see if you want to. It is not a great photograph because it is a screenshot from the video and therefore blurred and rather indistinct.

Bald eagle swoops down and picks up Yorkie puppy from porch of home. Screenshot.