Coyote May Have To Be Shot After Two Attacks On Dogs, One Fatal
Posted February 24, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A coyote roaming an east end neighbourhood may have to be euthanized after two attacks on dogs, one of them fatal.
Officials with Toronto Animal Services are concerned about safety in a stretch of the Beach near Neville Park Blvd. and Queen St. E. after the coyote snatched a Chihuahua from a backyard in broad daylight on Saturday.
Another dog was seriously injured in a separate attack in recent days. Residents are understandably concerned, especially those with small children.
“He’ll be just roaming this ravine, so I feel that this is his home. He stays in this vicinity,” one woman remarked.
Animal Services officials said they’re looking at a number of options, including asking people living in the neighbourhood to keep an eye on their garbage and watch their smaller pets.
The second option is to set a humane trap however that’s admittedly difficult to do with coyotes, which often sense they’re being fooled.
The final option is to bring someone in to shoot it, an idea that doesn’t sit well with everyone.
“I don’t like the idea of getting rid of wildlife,” area resident Kathleen Barret admitted. “We are as much encroaching on their territory so it’s about respect. If it gets out of hand you can do something about it. Maybe we need to monitor it and see if it gets worse.”
Another local resident opines: “It could be captured and set loose somewhere else.”
Sean Maxwell, whose dog Zoe was the one killed, wants to see the animal gone from the area.
“I love animals. That’s why I have dogs. And I’m very torn about the prospect of this thing being euthanized,” Maxwell says. “I don’t want it killed. I would like to have it humanely trapped and removed to an environment where it belongs. But, you know, we can’t be giving the coyotes the benefit of the doubt on this issue.”
Currently officials are searching for the coyote’s den and went door-to-door in the Beach on Tuesday warning residents not to feed the animals.
Other coyotes have been spotted around the city, including one boldly walking in and out of traffic near Highway 401 and the Allen Expressway.
And a resident near the South Kingsway claims her kids were frieghtened when they glimpsed one of the wild creatures. “It had a rabbit hanging out of its mouth and my kids were on the bus and they were going ‘Oh my God!'” remembers Liz Turner.
Officials said tranquilizer darts couldn’t be used on coyotes because they take 20 to 30 minutes to work. Also, if a dart misses its mark it could injure residents or pets later on.
“We are concerned,” noted Elida Purdy of City of Toronto Animal Services. “This is pretty confident coyote behaviour in that neighbourhood, maybe somebody’s putting food sources out so the coyotes are really comfortable coming up because there’s a constant source of food.”
It’s believed the animals are attracted to the area because of some food source, whether it’s garbage or something else. Bird feeders are apparently also a potential problem because they increase the number of rodents and birds in a given area.
So where are they all coming from? It turns out this isn’t our first close encounter of the wild kind. The GTA had a large population of coyotes in the year 2000, but a potentially fatal skin disease thinned their numbers.
“Their population got quite a bit lower over those years, but now over the last 12 or 18 months, we’ve noticed more phone calls on coyote sightings again because their population is coming back,” outlined Purdy.
Some aren’t comfortable sharing the space. “It is creepy when you know he’s watching you, you sort of wonder what’s going through his mind,” said one woman out walking her dog through the ravine.
The Toronto Humane Society released a statement Tuesday saying it didn’t agree with killing the animal.
“A humane trap is the best solution to capture this animal and relocate it to a more suitable habitat,” it pleaded. “The fact is that we have an ever-expanding city that we share with wildlife in our parks and ravines and the fact that we have wild animals living amongst us is part of life in Toronto. We have to learn to live with this wildlife and respect the fact that we are sharing and encroaching on their habitat.”
The Humane Society suggested the animal may have come out of seclusion because it’s sick, injured or hungry.
Coyote conundrum: your response
How to keep coyotes off your property
For a primer on how to outfox a coyote, click here.
Other ways to safeguard your homes from wildlife
Photo by CityNews viewer Carol Kilmartin
