By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON May 23, 2012 Remember the difficulty the police had getting the help they needed with that black bear that was roaming around Mountainside Park last week?
They put in a call to the people that were thought to have the capacity to handle situations like this.
Turns out that the Ministry of Natural Resources isn’t in that business anymore but they neglected to tell the police forces across the province.
Properly trained police can handle situations like this. The Halton Regional Police thought this was the kind of thing the Ministry of Natural Resources handles - what a shock when they learned the provincial government doesn't do that anymore. The police did what they had to do and got very little thanks from the public for handling the problem.
The Animal Control people in Burlington apparently didn’t know either.
Government cut backs were the reason for getting out of that line of business. Public responsibility apparently wasn’t factored into the decision. Why didn’t the Ministry alert the police forces and then hold a work shop to teach the police what they need in the way of equipment and how best to handle dangerous animals that get into public spaces?
They could have perhaps sold some of the equipment to the police services as well.
Our Burlington has asked our MPP, Jane McKenna if she can ask some questions in the Legislature and do something to help the Regional Police do the job we expect them to do.
Learning that the Ministry of Natural Resources don’t tranquilize animals that have to be removed from an areas must have come as a shock to the police as they scurried around trying to get the help they needed.
You can bet the Regional Police are adding a line to their budget for the equipment needed to do this job and the funds to train staff.
