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The City of Toronto has hired a nonprofit Coyote Watch Canada and a company called Critter Gitter to assist coyotes in the Liberty Village and Fort York area to experience ongoing problems.
Coyote Watch Canada is a volunteer-run nonprofit organization: “Advocate the coexistence of active human wildlife with concerns Canids.”
Citynews has asked the city to clarify the identity and nature of Critter Gritter’s work and is awaiting a response.
The two organizations were hired based on the recommendations of a seven-person coyote response expert panel – the city said it was an “independent third-party group with decades of combined experience in coyote management, biology and animal behavior.” They were called as part of the proposal Downtown Coyote Action Plan.
Critter Gitter and Coyote Watch Canada will “engage professional aversion activities in the Free Village and Fort Ford areas. Both consult with wild canine problems in North America,” said Shane Gerard, senior communications coordinator for the city.
The city has revealed plans to hire a company on March 18, and Carleton Grant’s executive director for municipal licenses and standards acknowledged that he was not aware of the service provider’s existence. He said neither the city nor the province’s procurement departments have any record suppliers that are suitable for the bill.
“However, seven members of the panel have worked with these companies before and will provide us with a list of companies so that we can choose someone who is immediately available and have the resources and numbers to do what we need,” he said in a press conference two weeks ago.
The organizations have begun working in the community and deployed on March 23.
“The scope of this work includes evaluating coyotes (their habitat and food sources) and providing aversion to engagement based on that assessment. The companies will also review other facilitating factors in the area to help address issues of community experience,” Gerald said.
Free Village residents’ group Coyote Safety Coal (CSC) said that there have been 90 reported attacks since November 2024, with four pet dogs killed.
Residents said they will do their best to follow all the city’s guidelines on bullying coyotes, creating a live coyote encounter alert team on the online chat app and taking their dogs away to provide digital security.
Ruby Kooner, co-founder of CSC, told Citynews that at least five attacks occurred since the two companies began working.
She added that the city did not inform them of this latest development directly, and they discovered it only when Citynews contacted them for comment. They haven’t seen any aversion team nearby.
“New York City wants residents to believe in the ‘shadow team’ they deployed, but there is no visibility, no sightings, no communication – and the attack continues, leaving the public feeling abandoned and at risk,” she said in a statement.
She added that the CSC asked the city to work with them more directly to measure the effectiveness of professional aversion activities, regularly introduce progress to the public, and “communicate a clear timetable and measurable goals for these assessments and interventions.”
When Citynews asked Grant to provide a professional team at a March 18 press conference to get the expected results, he did not provide a clear answer.
“Wildlife is very complex. It’s very challenging to schedule a schedule on top. What I can promise is that we look at the data every day, weekly, and if things continue to escalate for a certain amount of time, we will make the decisions we need to make. I can’t say we will pay you back in two weeks and then we make the decision,” he said.
To date, the CSC petition urging the city to relocate coyotes has received more than 1,000 signatures as residents of the region continue to demand determined solutions rather than “ineffective strategies” based on “pseudoscience.”
Another petition was initiated by a Liberty Village residents, called “Protecting the Liberty Village Coyotes in Toronto” with nearly 690 signatures.
“Adding animal bins, expanding animal services to 24/7, education on feeding bans, mandatory traction laws, repairing holes, building dog parks, and helping coyotes see dogs as neutral rather than threats will change things,” the petition, detailing actions consistent with the city’s current approach.
The CSC has said in the past that these methods do not work because coyotes in the region are used to humans and are no longer afraid of them. They feel that Coyotes watch Canada and its advice to the city seem to prioritize the safety of coyotes over local residents.
“Many residents are now considering moving because they are forced to stop walking dogs in the area – this lifestyle change is both unsustainable and acceptable,” Kuna said.
Spadina-fort York MP and Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik said the city will continue to work with residents and experts to find solutions to the problems she said are due to the development of Place in Ontario and the subsequent loss of wildlife habitat.
“I feel sad about the harm caused by pets and the attention of the residents around me,” she said in a March 18 press conference.
“I’m taking it seriously [hiring aversion companies] It’s the next upgrade. ”
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