By Pepper Parr
September 15, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
City Manager James Ridge put it pretty clearly to council members when, after more than an hour of debate, he said they had to decide how the city wanted to treat coyotes.
Do you want them lopping along the streets of the city or do you want us to remove the animals from our urban spaces, he asked?
The sense from Council was that no one minded the animals on the streets just as long as they don’t hurt us – and that was the issue – there appear to be coyotes out there that do want to hurt us.
The worst concentration of coyotes appears to be in the east end of the city but they are spreading around and are now found in all the wards. In the rural part of the city Councillor John Taylor said “we have our own way of handling the coyotes” which appeared to be acceptable.
There isn’t going to be a coyote kill like this in Burlington – unless someone is attached by one of the animals – there is considerable debate over whether or not coyotes actually attach people.
What wasn’t acceptable is shooting the animals, Councillor Craven kept calling them critters. And it isn’t acceptable to bludgeon them to death either, which appears to be what happened to one of the pups belonging to a bitch coyote in the east end.
Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster told of an evening driving home and there was a coyote in the middle of the road – she slowed down, drove past the animal and moved on then came upon a resident walking a small dog and suggested he might want to carry the dog.
The male resident said he wasn’t worried – he would just shush the coyote away.
Two Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry staffers delegated and told council that there were no known incidents of coyotes attacking people. The Mayor Googled and came up with specific incidents in Ontario where people were apparently attached by a coyote.
The issues seems to be – what does a community do when a wild animal changes its behaviour and decides it will not co-exist with humans and attacks them instead.
The draft bylaw that was in front of the Standing Committee didn’t seem to provide an answer to that question and so it was deferred to the next cycle of Standing Committee meetings.
A coyote that has apparently gone rogue in the east end of the city lost at least one of her pups to a public that wants that specific coyote out of the community
Councillor Paul Sharman has what he called a rogue coyote in his ward that had chased a young boy on his bike and another situation where a coyote had circled someone driving a jeep.
Council was meeting to debate a proposed by law that none of the members of council had seen more than a half day before council met.
The end result was to defer the debate on the bylaw – which was going to make it illegal to feed animals or fowl on public property.
What people did on their own property wasn’t something council could do anything about – which didn’t do much for the two woman, Kelly Rosbrook and Jennier Glenn of ward 2 – they had a local resident feeding the coyotes, the pigeons, the geese and apparently anything else that was hungry. They showed a video of vermin scooting through their back yards.
The trumpeter swans can be fed on public property – but only by people with a license to band them for scientific purposes – there are only eight people who can do that in Burlington.
The draft by law was to prevent people from feeding wild life on public property – there is to be an exception – the people wanting to restore the Trumpeter Swans were going to get an exemption – however it was to be limited to just the eight people who have a license to band and record data on the swans.
Councillor Craven had concerns over the number of people he believes are feeding the swans. He commented that anyone feeding swans in LaSalle park had better have their banding license with them.
There is more to this story. Stay tuned.
Female coyotes are properly described as bitches
My comment has been awaiting moderation for five days while wrong information remains online. Double standard and censorship by very author who accuses city council of doing the same.
Unfortunately my friend we weren’t wrong.
The Standing Committee did say that the feeding of wildlife on city property was going to be made illegal with the exception of the trumpeter swans. That Standing Committee decision has to go to city council where it gets voted on and is made legal.
What was deferred was a report on the coyote management problem – that report is not expected to get to a Standing Committee until sometime in November.
We were not sitting on your comment. It sometimes takes a longer than expected to dig through the notes and check to ensure that our understanding was correct.
We will accept your apology whenever you want to send it.
While Pepper was busy daydreaming about offensive headlines he should have been paying attention to the committee’s proceedings.
The feeding bylaw wasn’t deferred. A correction is in order.
https://twitter.com/MariannMeedWard/status/644228259526406144
Park is in Rick Cravens ward, it is on the west side of Brant Street and in ward 1.
I believe I heard the delegates from say they were not aware of any coyotes in Park, didn’t say there was or wasn’t any sightings of coyotes. Park is completely enclosed on all four sides with chain link fence and only access is through a few walkways.
If the purpose of a wildlife by law is to deal with Coyotes and a tool to stop a townhouse resident from feeding at Park then why not have the by law directed specifically at “Canada Geese, Pigeons, Sea Gulls and Coyotes” otherwise the term “wildlife” can be used for other special interest agendas..
Rick Craven has his own agenda to stop feeding of the Trumpeter Swans in LaSalle Park along with the LaSalle Park Marina so if people think they will be able to hand feed the birds, chippies or other water foul be assured animal control will be there with pen in hand to fine anyone caught offering “wildlife” food. (so much for family and school outings)
Editor’s note:
The reference to the woman living in ward 2 came from the list of delegates where they were described as living in ward 2
yes – there has to be some fun!! Craven…wasn’t that the Bird Park guy! lol
Fairchild Park is in Rick Cravens ward, it is on the west side of Brant Street and in ward 1.
I believe I heard the delegates from Fairchild Park say they were not aware of any coyotes in Fairchild Park, didn’t say there was or wasn’t any sightings of coyotes. Fairchild Park is completely enclosed on all four sides with chain link fence and only access is through a few walkways.
If the purpose of a wildlife by law is to deal with Coyotes and a tool to stop a townhouse resident from feeding at Fairchild Park then why not have the by law directed specifically at “Canada Geese, Pigeons, Sea Gulls and Coyotes” otherwise the term “wildlife” can be used for other special interest agendas.. i.e. LaSalle Park Marina
Rick Craven has his own agenda to stop feeding of the Trumpeter Swans in LaSalle Park along with the LaSalle Park Marina so if people think they will be able to hand feed the birds, chippies or other water foul be assured animal control will be there with pen in hand to fine anyone caught offering “wildlife” food. (so much for family and school outings)
Editor’s note:
The reference to the woman living in ward 2 came from the list of delegates where they were described as living in ward 2
“Bitches”….Sure Pepper. You just wanted to write that word.
This is a problem in several urban parts of the city. I see some things as correct as far as banning feeding wild animals within city limits. Lots of people feed birds on the trail of the RBG. People walk there with pets and children. If citings have not happened it won’t be long before coyotes are seen there.
The only problem is in the more rural areas of Burlington. I have no idea about how many rural Burly people would feed wild animals. One concern may be if this problem escalates with coyote appearances that some may take it in their own hands to use guns (more likely in rural areas north of Dundas.
Editor’s note: I did – I was thinking about how I would write the headline all the way home after the council meeting – there has to be some fun in this job.
I don’t understand the need for such a headline, very unprofessional.
Lighten up, if bitch is the proper word for a coyote then use it. Gets tiresome with all the political correct police surveilling every written word which is even more offensive.
Re: “…no one minded the animals on the streets just as long as they don’t hurt us…” – do we really want to wait for a coyote to bite a kid? Can’t they be given food laced with birth control drugs to stop their reproduction?