Independent review of Toronto’s coyote expert panel report claims it is ‘deeply flawed’

Since November 2024, concerned residents of Liberty Village, many of whom have now organized into the Coyote Safety Coalition, have been keeping detailed track of coyote encounters in the neighbourhood. So far, they’ve recorded more than 90 coyote attacks, both attempted and successful, and four pet dog deaths as a result of those attacks.

The coalition says the report produced by a panel of experts hired by the city to advise them about the ongoing coyote problems is “deeply flawed.”

The City of Toronto convened the panel of seven experts in March, describing them as having “decades of combined field and research experience in urban coyote management, biology and ecology, and animal behaviour, including some with more than 30 years of expertise and national recognition.”

Panel members have asked that the city not disclose their names. The city only revealed 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.”

CityNews has previously identified five out of the seven experts via the Coyote Safety Coalition and learned that some of them work with animal advocacy groups Coyote Watch Canada and Project Coyote.

Based on a report produced by the panel, the city hired a specialized team to apply “adapted aversion techniques” against the coyotes. The City told CityNews the aversion team consists of Coyote Watch Canada and a company called Critter Gitter, “a respected hunter/trapper company licensed by the Province of Ontario.”

Executive Director of Municipal Licensing and Standards, Carleton Grant, previously said that the specialized team was hired based on a list of recommendations provided by the expert panel itself, as neither the City nor the province had any vendors of record on file that fit the bill.

As per the City, the team began its work on March 23 and “coyotes continue to respond appropriately to aversion engagement.”

Since then, Liberty Village residents have tracked 26 additional coyote incidents.

Following what they call “the City of Toronto’s ongoing failure to act amid a disturbing rise in aggressive coyote incidents,” the Coyote Safety Coalition requested an independent scientific review of the City’s expert panel report by Dr. Dennis Murray, biology professor and Canada Research Chair in Integrative Wildlife Conservation at Trent University.

“We commissioned Dr. Murray because we felt that the panelists had some bias given their work with Coyote Watch Canada and such projects. Even after we gave them lots of data, we felt like they did not [take that into account] and had their own agenda. There were definitely biases that were present,” says coalition founder Ruby Kooner.

Murray also feels the report is biased.

“It seems like they went into the report writing with their conclusion in mind. It’s not like they had an open-minded process where they evaluated all of the data and came up with a conclusion, but rather that they had a conclusion in mind and that they worked backwards from that,” he says, adding that the report does not meet professional standards.

“I don’t think that it provides [the City] with very logical or evidence-based solutions as to how to resolve this difficult situation.”

In his review Murray said the expert panel’s report lacked transparency, failed to consult public safety experts, did not cite any of its source materials, which “fails to meet even basic standards of scientific reporting,” and did not take into account several aggressive coyote encounters, thereby “misrepresenting the scale and severity of the issue.”

In response, the City of Toronto reiterated the panel’s level of expertise, adding that “the panel gathered information from residents, the Deputy Mayor’s Office, City staff, and other affected parties. They also conducted a walkabout in the community to investigate known coyote hotspots.”

Murray also feels that the expert panel’s recommendation to hire Coyote Watch Canada as one of the aversion companies when members of the same organization are on the panel is problematic.

“The fact that Coyote Watch Canada would be hired to do the work that the [expert panel] recommended while advisory board members of Coyote Watch Canada were on the expert panel — it seems very circular and possibly a conflict of interest. So I have some concerns about that,” says Murray.

CityNews is awaiting a response from the city regarding these concerns. Coyote Watch Canada has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

Further, Murray calls into question the panel’s recommended course of action itself and is of the opinion that “specialized aversion activities” currently being carried out “are very unlikely to be successful.”

“There’s plenty of research out there that shows that animals that have extreme boldness, that have become extremely habituated to humans, as seems to be the case in Liberty Village … those are irreversible behaviors,” he says.

“So no matter the extent or the intensity of the hazing, those animals in all likelihood are set with those behavior patterns for the rest of their lives — that is what’s supported in scientific literature. So there are some cases where hazing might be successful, but that is for animals that aren’t heavily habituated or aren’t heavily emboldened the way that these animals are in Liberty Village.”

Murray has previously said the only logical solution is to euthanize the animals as peaceful coexistence is no longer an option.

“I interact with many people who work in my field with coyotes and other large carnivores. And basically people are laughing at the City of Toronto right now. It is a source of amusement for people in my line of work because the solutions [being attempted] at this point make no sense whatsoever,” he says.

“It’s completely illogical this paralysis that the municipality seems to be in right now over four problem coyotes that could quite easily be removed from the situation and everyone could just resume their normal lives after that.”

Kooner says they have been and continue to be staunchly opposed to euthanizing the animals, blaming what she calls the City’s inaction for bringing the situation to a point where it might be the only solution left.

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking that the City has let this escalate for over nine months. Now we may not have a choice but to cull the coyotes. Had the City been proactive in dealing with this immediately, for example, if professional aversion teams came out in October, [maybe] they would’ve had a better success rate than they’re going to have now,” she says.

“I do hope it’s a lesson learned because if they would’ve addressed it proactively, they could have avoided where we’re headed. And it looks like we’re headed towards culling, which is very sad,” she adds.

Kooner is still holding out hope that relocation of the coyotes is a possible solution.

Murray says in his scientific opinion, relocation is not the most humane option. He says it will either place coyotes in an unfamiliar environment where they will not know how to survive, place them in conflict with other resident coyotes and thereby lead to their deaths or pass the problem onto another urban area.

The City of Toronto has not mentioned relocating the coyotes as a possible option, previously citing a provincial rule preventing them from moving the animals more than one kilometre away. They have also not confirmed a decision to cull the coyotes, but have previously said it could be used as the last resort.