Toronto submits to fear of the wild
Posted: November 27, 2009, 2:40 PM by NP Editor
Filed under: Full Comment,Kelly McParland
It's well know that Torontonians are easily alarmed.
A large snowfall sends them into extremes of angst. Even a heavy rain can bring the city to a standstill. Now there's a new source of urban alarm: wildlife.
In case you missed it, central Toronto all but seized up this week when a young deer somehow wandered into it.
As reported by senior urban wildlife reporter Peter Kuitenbrouwer:
What does it take in Toronto to capture a deer that is sitting still?
Start with a dozen police constables. Add another dozen police from the Emergency Task Force in grey jumpsuits and bulletproof vests -- armed with dart guns, Tasers and a big sort of fishing net -- plus two vans from Animal Services and a senior veterinarian from the Toronto Zoo. Give them four hours: they will get the job done.
A busy street near Toronto City Hall bristled with these armed men this morning -- all focused on a tiny plot of grass, trees and hedges next to a 15-storey building of medical labs, optometrists and dentists.
There sat a doe, two to three years old, about 90 kilograms. She turned her head from side to side, her pointed dark brown ears filled with the roar of the city. Around the deer fluttered yellow crime scene tape, tied from stop signs to bicycle locking rings. Ten photographers and TV cameramen trained their lenses on her.
The deer crisis follows months of alarm over the city's burgeoning coyote population. This month Toronto police issued a coyote alert after a woman got a scare while walking in a park. The National Post, recognizing our mandate to alert and educate readers on vital issues, provided tips on coyote protocol (never invite them to dinner). One particularly mischievous coyote eluded extensive (and expensive) efforts to trap it after it gave the stink-eye to a pet dog earlier this year.
As if deers and coyotes weren't enough, Toronto's zoo workers issued dire warnings of the havoc thaty would have ensued if Samson, an 11-year-old, 1,000-pound male grizzly, had succeeded in his alleged plan to break out of the grizzly enclosure at Toronto's zoo.
Zoo management claim Sampson wasn't trying to bust out, and was just trying to get back together with another grizzly that had been moved earlier in the day. But Tony Meuleman, the senior zookeeper, maintained Sampson was just an hour from freedom when his escape was foiled. I knew it -- a cover-up!
National Post
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