York Region cops have had it with shooting critters

Police will no longer respond to calls about sick or injured raccoons and skunks, citing concerns about wasted time and risk to bystanders.

Thestar.com
May 5, 2016
By Geoffrey Vendeville

Residents of York Region will have to fend for themselves against hordes of skunks and raccoons now that local police have said they will stop shooting injured or sick wild animals.

The practice was such a drain on resources that the York police board decided to stop responding to animal complaints, except those related to vehicle collisions, as of Sept. 1.

York Regional Police put down 80 animals last year - up from 29 in 2014 - because they were injured, diseased or posed a risk to public safety, the police board said.

“The significant increase is primarily due to the rise in distemper cases in raccoons,” Const. Andy Pattenden told the Star.

The York Regional Police Services Board explained the policy change in a letter to the region’s municipalities last week.

“Police firearms are not meant to be used as primary tools of wildlife management,” they wrote.

“In addition to being an inefficient use of police resources, the routine use of armed police officers to dispatch sick or injured animals may give rise to officer and public safety concerns.”

Their decision comes after a 78-year-old man in Thornhill was wounded by a ricochet from a shotgun blast after a York police officer shot an injured deer. The man was treated in hospital and released, according to the Special Investigations Unit, a civilian oversight agency that investigates criminal charges against police. The SIU is still looking into the Nov. 9 incident.

Before killing a sick or wounded animal, York police would call local wildlife control centres to make sure there was no alternative, said Pattenden.

“We would try to get (the animal) to as safe a place as possible to dispatch it,” he said.

Skunks were often a challenge. “You’re not going to kindly escort the skunk, which may spray you, to a safe area,” he explained, so officers usually wait for the animal to move.

Once, a pair of York police officers conducted a two-hour skunk stakeout before it finally scampered to an area secluded enough to shoot it, Pattenden said.

The York police decision to stop putting down animals leaves each municipality to deal with their raccoon and skunk problems.

In Toronto, residents can call 311 to have the city’s Animal Services mobile response team come to the rescue. City staff picked up about 12,800 wild animals last year. The city transfers animals that can be helped to the Toronto Wildlife Centre. Those beyond saving are euthanized.

“In municipalities that don't provide this service, the animals get no response at all,” said Mary Lou Leiher, a manager at Toronto Animal Services. “Many of them die a more painful, slower death.”

Lisa Nackan, an art therapist in Thornhill, says she had to find her own way of dealing with a dying raccoon that crawled onto her driveway last summer. She stuffed it inside a garbage bin and brought it to a vet for disposal. Shooting it would have been “inhumane,” she said.

“I think if there is some sort of animal control that could humanely take the animal and euthanize it, perhaps. But absolutely no shooting.”