Re: [OT] Toronto pets - and toddlers - at risk from aggressive coyotes

On 2025-04-26 2:31 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

On Apr 25, 2025 at 7:29:39 PM PDT, "Rhino" <no_offline_contact@example.com>
wrote:
 

I was surprised to learn that aggressive coyotes have been seen - and
caught on camera - trying to take away small dogs and even young children.
>
>
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/04/25/uber-fare-dispute-customer-account-hacked/
>
Residents are deeply frustrated by Toronto City Council's response to
the problem, which seems to be trying to train the coyote's to be more
afraid of humans, which Council claims is working. Residents disagree.
Council is also consulting a trapper - I wonder where they found one; I
thought that profession was limited to the Far North at this point - to
see what he thinks should be done.
>
Toronto has had problems with raccoons for many years and I remember
seeing foxes and skunks near my office when I worked in Toronto but
hadn't heard of a coyote issue.

 Coyotes are always a problem here. You see them out and about constantly.r
Sometimes you also see them setting up arcane devices from the Acme Company to
try to catch your cat or dog.
 

If we could carry firearms, I expect the coyotes would learn to move on fairly quickly. But of course that's not an option. Having the police respond to do a little 9mm animal control is probably unrealistic too; they're too busy guarding Islamists during their protests (or bringing them coffee and doughnuts).
When I lived in London (Ontario), we had a significant surplus of deer. Originally, people had noticed how thin the deer in neighbouring provincial parks were and instituted feeding programs for them. Unsurprisingly, that led to a vast growth in the deer population and that led to the deer getting ever bolder in their attempts to find food in people's gardens or whatever, often damaging property in the process. Soon, everyone agreed there was a problem but every alternative found opponents. Rounding them up and relocating them was deemed too expensive. Shooting them aroused horrified reactions in everyone who'd seen Bambi, particularly since firearms were involved. Concerns about the noise of firearms were also significant. Bow hunters offered to do a cull but that wasn't good enough either. Some worried about traumatizing children.
Maybe Toronto needs to export its coyotes to London to deal with the excess deer the natural way. Of course that will be deemed too cruel as well. I expect they'll settle on something that will make the problems considerably worse at great expense but where no one can get accused of cruelty to animals.
--
Rhino