The city releases its coyote report. While overall good, it includes shooting coyotes “discreetly” by a hired hunter if hazing doesn’t work. https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/8fb1-Consolidated-Summary-Report-Expert-Panel-on-Coyotes-in-Fort-York-Liberty-Village-FINAL.pdf
“Proposed Response Options
The priority should be to continue adaptive aversion condition (AC) of local coyotes and of
educating the community, in tandem with identification and removal of food attractants.
Implementation of these measures should begin immediately in order to avoid further
reinforcement of the problem animals’ maladaptive behaviour. Where the City does not
have in-house expertise or capacity, the City should complete an expedited procurement
process for a company specializing in coyote aversion.
Should AC fail, and coyotes require removal only after careful assessment, the most
humane practice is for trained specialists to selectively and discreetly kill by a firearm
specific, positively identified problem coyote individuals. If used, humane outcomes must
be ensured and traumatizing exposure of the dispatch by the community should be
avoided to the extent possible.
Live capture and off-site euthanization of problematic coyote individuals is not
recommended due to practical and logistical considerations, as well as the risks involved
in implementation. Dogs can easily be maimed, de-limbed or killed by traps set for
coyotes, no matter how careful the placement.
Finally, culling of the coyote population is not supported by evidence and is unlikely to
produce desired results (there are always more coyotes who can repopulate the area
quickly), and cannot be ethically justified. Culling coyote populations indiscriminately has
led to counterproductive results elsewhere in North America, including increased conflict
with humans or predation of livestock; these effects are the basis for coexistence-driven
solutions.”
Well, the second and last paragraphs contradict themselves. Killing even one coyote tears apart the family and results in individual coyotes creating more families. Furthermore, discreetly shooting by the city hired hunter requires a silencer, which is illegal unless there is a special federal permit. Also, hiring a hunter to shoot an animal without telling anyone is incredibly creepy and anti democratic. And unsafe. And shooting is burning a hole into a fast moving animal. It isn’t considered a humane euthanasia method. People will find out and suffer even more psychological distress. People will become paranoid and not trust the city.
And if a coyote must be removed, live cage trapping is possible, if the cage is left unset for a bit to let coyotes get used to it, and the cage is modified for sensory friendliness (although it has the same problem as coyote shooting, in the breaking up of families unless the entire family is captured, though new coyotes still move in).
Common sense says if shooting is possible, so is tranquilizing (with the animals being tracked via drone until they fall asleep).
Relocating is absolutely allowed with special provincial permission if an animal must be relocated for their well being. Displacement by habitat loss could qualify for humane relocation due to the unique circumstances in this case.
This document was created in consultation with citizens, but only specifically picked citizens biased against coyotes. The Coyote Safety Coalition is an anti coyote lobby group.