Protect Toronto Area Coyotes

Recently, dogs have been bitten in Princess Margaret Park, and nearby parks.  One person was accidentally injured as well.  The coyotes are a family who have lived in the area for years.  They were minding their own business, until people started feeding them, and dogs bothered them. https://www.facebook.com/stephenholyday2/posts/pfbid02SZiWraE8ZqSzB6jx5HUpWjS1HHkoKG2tMu635g5aK294vtudKCtA8ZWzoDqq8QJkl

We would like the city to leave the coyotes alone.

On November 22, 2021, Toronto Police shot a female coyote, who was then tested for rabies using the old fashioned dissection test (there are humane tests but these are only used in humans).  The rabies test is barbaric, and not legally or medically necessary.  The current intramuscular vaccines are safe, and often used without testing the animal.  We would like Toronto Public Health to vaccinate people and animals who are bitten, instead of having wild animals who bite killed for rabies testing.

She was likely being fed by people, and she bit two people in Bayview Villiage Park in Toronto. According to animal rights groups, the coyote seemed healthy, and was not aggressive.  The human injuries where minor.  (Dogs in Toronto who cause minor bites are handled in a non lethal way).

We would like the city to work with www.coyotewatchcanada.com and www.torontowildlifecentre.com to educate the public and train animals to avoid people.  If this is not possible, we would like animals to be relocated with a permit.

Earlier the same year, a nuisance coyote in a Toronto cemetery was darted and relocated to a legitimate captive sanctuary (Aspen Valley Wildlife Centre).  He was later released when he became wild again.

https://www.torontowildlifecentre.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Media-release-Pine-Hills-Cemetery-coyote-captured.doc.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3H2VPKMf6cdNUCrL1OxN9jPdVJK_wHU0fdkKyltGNhO0JieSONiJ3QRRM  

We would like to see Toronto maintain a 100% non lethal approach to human coyote conflicts.  Toronto's wildlife feeding ban has been expanded to the entire city, which helps prevent conflicts. (Previously, the feeding ban only applied to City property.). https://www.toronto.ca/news/toronto-city-council-modernizes-animal-bylaw-improves-welfare-of-animals-and-wildlife-in-toronto/?fbclid=IwAR3RSX-VOCk6KZ1tJHOBR0VZv3G_GR38idtD0SDuq7ra48f6t9X-131LNcE

Killing coyotes never works, as seen in this other petition regarding Vancouver's Stanley Park's lethal approach to fed coyotes biting people.

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-ca/488/374/022/save-stanley-park's-coyotes/