Tommy Lee and wife Brittany Furlan have two dachshunds, Teenie and Neena. Earlier this week they let the floofs out in the fenced-in backyard of their LA home, when a coyote ran in and snatched Neena. The whole thing was caught on their Ring security camera, and fair warning: the sounds of Brittany and Tommy reacting to the scene are blood-curdling. Thank dog, Brittany went after her baby and was able to rescue her when the coyote was having trouble getting over the property wall. This is a scary story, but everyone is safe now and we don’t want it to happen to anyone else! Which is part of why Brittany is sharing it online and with local news:
A coyote on Tuesday snatched a dog owned by rock star Tommy Lee and comedian Brittany Furlan — and the scary scene was captured on a security camera video punctuated by Furlan’s screams of horror.
The footage shows the coyote chasing the couple’s two dogs in the family’s backyard in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles before it bites onto Neena, their dachshund, and runs off with her.
But the terrifying incident had a happy ending.
“Neena is safe,” Furlan wrote on Instagram, where she shared the video clip. “I climbed up the wall and grabbed her out of its mouth. Thank God she’s a little bit fat because he couldn’t make it over the wall with her. If it was Teenie she would’ve been gone.”
Lee appears briefly in the footage when Furlan lets him know what happened.
“I’m still shaken up,” she told NBC Los Angeles.
Lee, the drummer and co-founder of the band Mötley Crüe, and Furlan, who rose to fame on the now-defunct platform Vine, married in 2019.
Brittany is a very brave mama! I’ve never had to rescue a dog from a coyote, but if it ever happens I hope I’ll have the same visceral strength to take action as Brittany showed. After taking a few deep breaths and calming down from the primal horror aspect of this story, can we now talk about Brittany telling everyone it was Neena’s girth that saved her? Hasn’t the poor kid been through enough?! Even when Brittany appeared on NBC Los Angeles, the anchor set up the intro with, “Thankfully, that dog was too heavy for the coyote to pull over their wall.” You hear that, world? Fat thwarts dog abductions! I only wish I could’ve had that line prepared on one of the many, many times people stopped to ask if my dearly-departed My Girl was pregnant. “Not pregnant, just guarding against predators.”
To all the pet parents: take care of your babies! Of all shapes and sizes. And do not leave them alone outside. Also, please give them a good scritch from me.
Note from CB: A video of her dogs is in slide four!
I would have been screaming just like her, omg that was harrowing! I’m happy for them, poor Jessica Simpson lost her dog to a coyote years ago. We have birds of prey out here that I was worried about, I never left my dog alone in the yard
I live on a central Texas ranch and this is a constant worry. I have two four month old puppies and I can never let them out alone. There are coyotes, and also hawks and these Mexican eagles called Caracaras. The Caracaras are part of the falcon family and fearsome hunters. I have coats for the pups that make them look like porcupines to discourage predators of any kind.
We are in Houston. My son’s fiancé grew up with poodles. Recently her parents got a new one, and her mother put an “Anti-Hawk” shirt on her to go out walking. It has big scary eyes and spikes on the back of it to look a threat and deter the big predator birds.
In my neighborhood, which is all single family homes but pretty densely packed, you sometimes see hawks get little critters. Once one swooped down in front of my car just as I was pulling away from my house, grabbed a little squirrel and flew up into a tree. It was scary. Those things are huge, their wing span is insane. I thought it had gotten my neighbor’s cat and was freaking out.
So glad the little dog is safe. How terrifying. Coyotes have also been spotted in my area a couple of times now. My cat always stays inside.
Yes, the Coyotes are coming down from the mountains and into our LA neighborhoods… I saw one on my morning walk, one or two days ago. Unfortunately, man keeps encroaching on their hunting grounds making them have to look for food else where.
This happened to my former mother in law, except she was still recovering from a car accident where she broke both wrists and an ankle, she let her dog out in an unfenced yard and a coyote got him and shook him around and started to run off, she has such a high pitched voice and screamed so loudly that the coyote dropped him and ran off. He was extremely injured and almost didn’t make it, he had drains for weeks but he recovered!
I can’t watch the video, it will hurt my heart thinking of all the animals who don’t make it. Coyotes have become such a problem in my area as well, it’s growing so rapidly and we’ve torn down their homes to build subdivisions, they don’t have anywhere to go.
My friend lost her chorkie when a hawk took it from her fenced in back yard.
Another friend lost a small dog when a coyote took it when they were walking – like grabbed the leashed dog and ran. The owners were elderly and unable to save it.
I’m diligent when my chis are outside – I’ve considered getting them the studded harnesses.
This happened to my mom when she was walking our family dog in a park. The coyote grabbed our cocker spaniel and tried to take off but my mom screamed and threw rocks at it. It dropped our dog and ran.
Our dog was shaken up but had no injuries other than the skin on the back of her neck ripped a little. She got lots of spoiling after that.
That Ring video is disturbing! I’m glad Neena is okay, and I’m sorry that so many of you in the comments have experienced wild birds/ animals attacking your fur babies. I didn’t realize how common that was.
There are A LOT of coyotes in Woodland Hills. If you have a small dog, please don’t let them out in your yard unattended at dawn and dusk as these are the most common times coyotes will be out hunting.
Bicycle flashers — I have several of the clip-on flashing bicycle lights that I clip to the harnesses of my Yorkies — I keep them in the motorhome, house etc. It’s like their own person little scarecrow and works very well. Also makes them easier to see at night obviously.
I had a horrific experience with my precious yorkie and an unleashed pit bull — she survived thank god, but only because my partner and I were able to choke the pit bull out long enough for her to scurry free — just in time for the owner to waddle on over, looking like a slapped @$$ — but never coyotes. I’m not sure I’d know how to approach a wild animal like that but with the pit bull my adrenalin just kicked in and I went into autopilot, so maybe you just rely on fight or flight.
Highly recommend the CoyoteVest Pet Body Armor for those with little dogs, it will save their lives if coyotes/birds of prey are a danger in your area. (the designers lost their own dog to a coyote and that promoted this creation)
That’s one video I can’t watch. So glad the pups okay!
The other big asset to the coyotes are the retractable leashes. Our vet in Sedona said he had heard more horror stories about small dogs on a retractable leash. That;s not even talking about the predatory birds.
I remember telling my husband no more puppies in winter! A four month old puppy in Flagstaff winter is no fun.