'Please help me:' Thornhill residents concerned as coyote encounters rise

Coyotes a hot topic on Vaughan community Facebook groups

Yorkregion.com
May 25, 2020
Simone Joseph

A scream woke David Cohen and his wife April 11 at 1:30 a.m., midway through Passover.

Cohen lives in Thornhill’s Bathurst Street and Clark Avenue area.

The couple dressed and ran outside.

Heading north on Campbell Avenue, Cohen saw a coyote. Then, they turned east on Arnold Avenue, spotting a woman running behind a coyote.

“Please help me,” she said, telling them coyotes had snatched her dog.

“This poor lady was very distraught,” Cohen said. “Her emotional state was fragile.”

Two coyotes were running between houses, circling us on Arnold, he said.

The woman had felt sick that day so she hadn’t taken her dog, a Maltese poodle, out.

Instead, she had taken the dog out in the wee hours to her Clark Avenue West apartment building’s parkette. Two coyotes approached. One grabbed the dog; the other blocked her from moving.

Coyotes are a hot topic on Thornhill/Vaughan-related Facebook groups and other groups.

Councillor Alan Shefman addressed the issue on the Nextdoor group:

“Nobody should be afraid to walk in their community,” he said.

Shefman has worked with Vaughan’s Animal Services.

“We are restrained by the provincial legislation, which is in place to protect wildlife, not people,” he said.

"Our staff are working with the province to look for a solution that is within the legal limits as defined by the act. I am not sure if there is a magic bullet there,” he said. “The bottom line is that coyotes are a growing phenomena in urban areas across North America.”

Esther Freedman lives near Campbell Avenue and Atkinson Avenue. This is the first year she has seen so many coyotes.

“I'm not happy that they are ‘hanging’ around here,” she said, via email. “The reality is that the coyotes are here to stay in Thornhill, unless someone figures a way to maybe track them, so they could scientifically see where they are going.”

Freedman spotted a coyote May 14, on Thornbank Road, near Erica Road and has also seen a coyote at Sobeys Plaza at Clark Avenue and Hilda Avenue.

MPP Gila Martow posted a note online saying many residents had contacted her, concerned about increased coyote presence and aggression.

She consulted Environment Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, arranging for Parliamentary Assistant Mike Harris and Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua to speak about the issue.

“I am confident that he (the mayor) will take the necessary next step of co-ordinating Vaughan bylaw enforcement with the relevant provincial ministry,” she said. “I want to thank Mayor Bevilacqua and PA Harris for examining the situation and look forward to their action plan to keep our community safe.”

David Cohen has his own perspective:

“They are predators. That’s what they do for a living,” he said.

He used to enjoy walking with his wife at night. “We don’t anymore. I don’t need to risk it.”

If he does go out at night, he brings a little bat.

And what happened to the woman they heard screaming early in the morning?

She never saw her dog again.