City of Toronto to hire specialized team to use ‘adapted aversion techniques’ on Liberty Village coyotes

The City of Toronto says recommendations from a panel of experts they convened last month is going to help with the ongoing coyote attacks in the Liberty Village and Fort York areas, with residents reporting daily, often violent encounters at all times of the day and night.

However, the neighbourhood’s advocacy group, the Coyote Safety Coalition (CSC), says the City is falling short on prioritizing the safety of residents and their pets, with 70 attacks documented since November and the death of two pet dogs as a direct result of coyote attacks and two more lost as a result of complications following an attack.

As part of a proposed Downtown Coyote Action Plan presented at the Feb. 26 Economic and Community Development meeting, the city put together a “independent, third-party panel with decades of combined experience in coyote management, biology and animal behaviour” called the Downtown Coyote Response Expert Panel.

It is comprised of seven experts in biology and wildlife from across Canada. They were tasked with conducting a thorough review of the City’s response to coyotes in the area between November 2024 and March 2025 and providing recommendations for next steps.

The City did not want to disclose their names, and would only reveal in a statement that “they represented a diverse range of organizations including the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, University of Guelph, University of Calgary, Ontario Veterinary College, as well as other independent researchers/experts.”

The panel met with the CSC on Tuesday to discuss their report and recommendations, before the City held a press conference for media later that afternoon.

Members of the community group told CityNews they spoke directly with Dr. Shelley Alexander, a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary, Dr. Lauren Van Patter from the Department of Clinical Studies at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, Dr. Paul Paquet, Senior Ecologist with the Conservation Biology Institute and Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Ralph Toninger, Associate Director of Restoration and Resource Management at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and Shilah Diminie, a senior advisor on the Environmental Programs & Assessments Indigenous Relations team at Metrolinx.

Alexander and Van Patter are also on the advisory council for Coyote Watch Canada and Paquet is a science advisory board member with Project Coyote, both wildlife advocacy groups.

The city said the panel of experts awarded them high marks for how they have handled the coyote problem in Liberty Village and Fort York thus far.

“Their overall analysis and evaluation of the work that we have done to date [is that it] aligns with best practices amongst municipalities in North America. We have done the right things, and we will continue to do the right things as we deal with this very complex problem,” said Carleton Grant, Executive Director of Municipal Licensing and Standards.

The panel also identified that the issues seen with the coyotes in Liberty Village “are consistent with food-conditioned behaviour.”

“Up to four coyotes in the area have learned to associate humans with food because of direct and indirect feeding. The aggressive behaviour towards dogs was also found to be typical and timed with the reproductive season,” the City said in a news release.

The City says the panel’s recommendations will inform updates to its Coyote Response Strategy which will go to the Economic and Community Development Committee later this year.

Expert panel recommends outside help from specialized team

The panel recommended five steps for the City to take immediately. Chief among them was the idea to hire a specialized team to assess the coyotes and apply “adapted aversion techniques,” monitor the results of those tactics, and report back to City staff.

“It was news to me yesterday that [such a company] existed because when this whole thing started, I went to our procurement department and I asked ‘do we have anyone on our list of vendors that do this type of work?’ Our procurement colleagues told me they didn’t. They reached out to vendors of record for the province that we could utilize as well, and they didn’t have vendors of record,” said Grant.

“However, the seven members of the expert panel have worked with these companies before and will be providing us with a list of companies for us to choose someone who’s available immediately and has the resources and numbers to do what’s required.”

He added that this team, which has not yet been hired, will be different from the city’s team of bylaw officers and staff from the parks department that are currently tasked with hazing the coyotes and patrolling the area.

“This is going one step further, and it’s getting a professional company that does this work. It’s their expertise, and we need to utilize that expertise because we are going to the next level and they’re [going to be] closely watching what the coyotes are doing. It will be monitored, and we will use this information to help us make decisions and guide our next steps,” he said.

Ruby Kooner, one of the founders of the Coyote Safety Coalition, said they had recently suggested the same in their ongoing meetings and communications with the city.

“Several weeks ago in early February, we actually recommended this tactic where they hire professionals trackers as well as a company to seek out the coyotes and perform these aversion techniques and not rely on residents [participation in hazing]. At that point we were dismissed,” she said.

“Now we have to most likely wait another several weeks for them to actually get boots on the ground. And if the aversion techniques are not working by these professionals, then what?”

The city has previously said that humanely euthanizing the coyotes is not off the table, but only as a drastic last resort. When asked how long the specialized team will be given to achieve the desired results before that decision might be made, Grant did not provide a definitive answer.

“Wildlife is very complex. It is very challenging to put a timeline on it. What I can commit to you is that we will be looking at data daily, weekly, and if things continue in a certain escalation, we will make the decision we need to make. I can’t say we’ll get back to you in two weeks and then we’re going to make the decision. We are looking at this daily information — it is really important that the community is reporting information through the 3-1-1 — and that our staff have information and that the aversion company also has information that we will use to guide our decision making,” he said.

“I am heartbroken at the harm that has caused to pets and the concern to residents around this. I am taking that with seriousness and this is a next escalation of that. And this expert panel report also equips city staff with the next steps around at what escalation looks like and we did not have that before,” adds ward councillor and Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik.

“It is at city staff’s discretion about where we go to next with these targeted aversion techniques and to the last resort, as we track this on a daily basis.”

“We are disappointed. We’ve been facing this issue for five months and it is escalating. So, at this point, we expected more of a detailed action plan with timelines and actionable items and we did not receive that today,” said Kooner, whose dog Amber passed away following complications after a coyote attack.

She stressed that the Coyote Safety Coalition is not advocating for euthanization, but continues to push for relocation. The City has previously said that’s not an option, citing a provincial regulation that states coyotes cannot be moved more than one kilometre away.

“I think we can get an exemption to the policy based on two things. One of the major factors in this issue is Ontario Place, and they received an exemption to the environmental policy [to build the spa there]. So why would we not receive one now? And secondly, in the past there has been a coyote relocated from Scarborough to Muskoka, and they received an exemption to the policy. So if explored further there, we should be able to get an exemption,” she said.

Coun. Malik said they have been trying to engage the province as they grapple with the issue, which she said has been caused partly by the development along the rail corridor in the area and Ontario Place.

“We have not heard anything yet but we have been calling [on the province] to step up to their responsibility in a very serious situation like this, and we’ll continue to do that. The expert panel was also directed to see what could be possible around changes to provincial legislation and they have said that that dialogue has to continue between different levels of government,” she said.

Other recommendations from expert panel

The expert panel also recommended removing human food sources by enforcing no dumping and no wildlife feeding bylaws, repairing fences and improving lighting and sightlines, and continuing to use aversion techniques that “utilize bodies, voices and handheld objects rather than projectiles, bullets or dogs, all of which could increase the defensive reactivity of the coyotes.”

The panel also suggested increasing community education about how dumping, feeding wildlife and having dogs off leash impact coyote activity.

Kooner said the community is fed up with the repeated messaging that off-leash dogs are the main problem.

“Out of the 70 plus cases we have documented [since November], majority of these cases are on-leash dogs. So yes, off-leash dogs do exist in our community, but they are not the ones that are being targeted by the coyotes. We probably have about 10 off-leash attacks right now, out of the 70,” she said.

“Some residents are wanting to take action into their own hands. So the situation is escalating on every side.”

A resident who preferred not to be identified told CityNews he resorted to throwing rocks at a pack of three coyotes that had cornered a man with a leashed German Shepherd on Sunday.

“I understand and I’m sympathetic to the fear that our residents have. I wouldn’t encourage people to use rocks, but if people have to protect themselves and their pets then they need to do what they need to do,” said Grant.

“But it’s really important that everyone works together on this and we need to get out there and we need to be educating people on what works and what doesn’t and how we can deal with this problem collectively.”

The current advice when confronted with a coyote remains “make yourself big, be loud and be assertive,” he said.

Kooner and other residents have repeatedly said traditional scare tactics are not working against this particular set of coyotes that are now habituated to humans.

“At this point, they are making the coyotes more important than the residents. And the one way they’re doing this is minimizing our experiences and minimizing what’s happening here,” she said.

“We’re losing hope at this time and we actually don’t know what to do anymore.”