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Toronto’s licensing and standards committee decided Tuesday to send a request for a “no kill” coyote policy to city staff for feedback.
The staff report will be presented to the committee in September.
Scarborough councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker had proposed the city adopt a “no kill” coyote policy after Toronto police shot and killed a coyote in Cabbagetown last month.
“I want to formalize that policy for staff and for emergency first responders,” De Baeremaeker told reporters at city hall on Tuesday.
“There are better ways to rid your neighbourhood of a coyote than resorting to extreme measures.”
De Baeremaeker, who requested a staff report on implementing the policy, is also calling for a ban on feeding coyotes as well as an education campaign.
De Baeremaeker argued that requests from residents to trap or shoot coyotes within city limits are “ill-advised and even dangerous,” both to residents and other animals.
According to De Baeremaeker, coyotes are rarely a threat to people. He said that in the last two years, Animal Services “has recorded a total of over 1,000 occurrences of dogs biting people. In the last two years there have been zero occurrences of coyotes biting people.”
The police shooting of a coyote in Cabbagetown on Feb. 11 had some groups calling for the city to put together an urban coyote plan.
The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals wants council to enact a bylaw regulating the feeding of wildlife and adopt a “Living with Coyotes” educational program, and is offering to put the program together at no cost to the city.
The association has the support of the Toronto Wildlife Centre and the group Coyote Watch.
The group said coyote attacks are extremely rare with the last one reported by Toronto Animal Services happening more than 10 years ago when a woman received a minor bite after regularly feeding a wounded coyote.
Toronto becoming like the Simpsons and Homers plea for more precautions and policy to protect the city from Bears. BEAR TAX? WHAAAA….
How about protection from “man bear pig” ???
People of Toronto have become nothing but BABIES! I don’t recall the last time a coyote killed someone. We always lived with wildlife, and because we are building everywhere, we just assume that we kill off all wildlife so we dont have to associate with them? People make me sick. You guys should go and live in a bubble
and if you are worried about your kids/pets, be RESPONSIBLE and watch them. Or is it just easier to kill the animals than be responsible?????
In the wonderful world of nature’s creatures, the human is by far the most dangerous creature. Somewhere near the bottom of the list are coyotes.
Higher up on the list, being much more dangerous, are birds like pigeons, seagulls, canada geese, and starlings which leave vast quantities of their droppings in various public places. They carry a variety of diseases and may eventually spread some epidemic like bird flu (Avian Influenza), West Nile Virus, etc.
Still higher up on the list of dangerous creatures are rats and mice (coyotes eat rats and mice). Rats and mice carry a variety of diseases that can spread to people like for example: Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, Leptospirosis, Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis, Rat-Bite Fever, Tularemia, etc.
Perhaps a new variety of Plague (carried by rodent fleas) will make a big come-back some day?
When I heard this story on the news, I was furious! I think Glenn De Baeremaeker should not be a city councillor. Instead of having the interest of the public, is more interested in protecting wildlife! Why should people living in a city like Toronto be worried about the safety of their pets and children in their own backyards? The city charges licence fees for pets, not to mention that owning pets help the economy (vets, pet food, etc). Maybe he should give that man who lost his dog in front of his eyes a reason for why coyotes should be allowed in this city. What benefit do we have with coyotes running around loose? He should be asking animal control to do their job removing coyotes from areas they don’t belong instead! How dare he have disregard for pets and people’s safety over wild animals!!
The disturbing part of the coyote story, is that we witnessed a police officer shooting at a coyote running away from him! I see the firing of a gun shot as the problem. The public observered on TV a wandering animal, no different from a raccoon ,deer, being shot at. The reason we heard the officer later fired and killed the animal was because it was aggressive? I watched the clip on TV and I witnessed a passive, confused animal misplaced and out of his enviroment. If the animal was charging or attacking the officer , that would be the only reason to fire and kill. I am disappointed at the officers lack of judgement. Tranquilizing the animal is usually what occurs. It amazes me why the Wildlife workers were not called in to do their job., this coyote was wandering for a few days. Many bears wander up north in neighbourhoods such as Orilla, in fact city news showed a bear last year, finally cornered in a tree was tranquilized and relocated . Forests are being cleared for new developments, so where do the wildlife go. Shooting and killing wildlife will not solve the problem , it poses more of a danger to our neighbourhoods.
Its a well know fact that people of Toronto are pathetic. The most laughable news ever to make the rest of Canada laugh…. is calling in the army for a little snow fall…….to calling an extreme cold alert at 0 degrees!! This is Canada, not HONG KONG! It will take the death of a love one ot a pet before you realize that a city is no place for a coyote. Your city councilors has no knowledge on wildlife. I’m sure that they are laughing about thisissue all over Canada. Allow the police to get rid of the coyotes in a safe way, even if they have to shoot them. Who will take responsibility when a coyotes will strike? I bet that no council person in Toronto has any clue on how coyotes fight in packs…..when it happens, you will hear the sob stories on the news. Let the Police do what they have to do to prevent an accident you’ll regret later…it will happen.
wow, we are heading toward giving animals more freedom than we have, and that includes assaulting we human being and they get no prison time..
And yet every day I see countless people wearing Canada Goose jackets; no doubt the same individuals who get upset when they see the police shot and killed a Coyote…do they not know where the fur trim on their hoods comes from?
i don’t agree with the pitbull ban, and i also don’t agree with killing coyotes, to make sure your pets are safe stay with your small dog or cat ,next the police will be shooting the hawks out of the sky because they also take cats, rabbits, rodents, last summer we saw a stray cat being taken , at first we thaught it was a rabbit , so if your cats never came home ,it was probably a hawks dinner…a fox is near our house , when he see me he just checks me out, and maybe he is hopeing i’ll leave the chicken open lol ,,
Oh my, we need a ban to tell stupid people not to feed wild animals. LOL Are we that pathetic of a society, we must enact rules every single time something happens?
Coyotes are supposed to naturally fear humans, and when they stop fearing us, this is a problem, as it goes to the next generation of offspring. Did the police need to shoot that coyote? I don’t know. I do know from news reports and video, they spent two nights chasing this thing around. It also was NOT afraid of humans. Having lived most of my life in the country, NO coyote would ever come as close as this one did, even trying to escape. Maybe if Toronto Animal Services actually got off their arses and started responding to citizens calls at night, it wouldn’t have been needed to shoot that animal.
Shooting one animal and culling are two very different things. Coyotes are somewhat smart, and will continue to be a pest once it has found an easy food source. Relocation doesn’t always work, unless its hundreds of miles away, and even then, I have heard they will make their way back, if, where they are moved to, doesn’t have the plentiful food source, that the old location did.
Comparing dog bites to coyote bites is a dumb example. Dogs don’t bite because they are hungry, something triggered the attack in the dog. Dogs don’t just run around biting humans. If you got bit, the majority of the time, you did something. Ever see what a hungry carnivorous animal will do to eat?
If the Toronto Wildlife Centre and the group Coyote Watch are so concerned about protecting coyotes, maybe they can start responding to the calls, trapping the damn things, and relocating them at their dime.
Great idea, Glenn. But unworkable unless you can guarantee the coyotes also aren’t going to attack pets or children. I agree with the principle, that coyotes shouldn’t be killed on sight for no reason, but once they cross the line and attack, it’s either an expensive relocation or a cheap bullet.
“The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals wants council to enact a by-law regulating the feeding of wildlife and adopt a “Living with Coyotes program”
I’m not sure who the hell these nutjobs are, but turning Toronto into Dances With Wolves is not a sane solution. Just like any deer or other wildlife call, the provincial ministry should be called to handle the isssue first (as they presumably have the most knowledge), and local police should step in only when there’s an imminent danger to the public. For those in the “Association of Protection of Fur Bearing Animals”, I suggest you lose the orange berets on your heads, as they seem to be cutting off circulation to your very small brains.
A coyote did bite an 8-year old girl in Oakville in early 2012, while the child was playing in her backyard. Councillor’s information on coyotes biting people is incorrect.
Oakville is NOT Toronto. Toronto Animal Services would not have information regarding animal bites occurring in other municipalities….so technically, his information IS correct.
We can kill peoples pets (pit bull ban) but can’t kill a coyote? Wow where do these people come from?
you can buy another pet… you cant buy a wild coyote.
cant buy another person
From the Ministry of Natural Resources website: “The Ministry of Natural Resources also provides municipalities with information necessary to obtain authorizations to kill problem coyotes. The authorization has conditions on targeting specific problem coyotes such as those that are killing livestock. These authorizations are for relatively short periods and are confined to specific geographic areas where problem coyotes have been identified.”
This appears to say that municipalities need permission from the Ministry before killing a problem coyote. Did the Toronto police get that permission? If Toronto simply follows the existing process, does Toronto need a special “no kill” rule???