A coyote in Toronto.© Flickr/Ivor-in-Toronto
Last Tuesday, there was a debate at Toronto City Hall to determine whether or not residents of four wards in Toronto—the fourth largest and most cosmopolitan city in North America—should be allowed to keep chickens in their back yards as a “pilot project.”[teaserbreak]
Toronto is in a post-glacial region characterized by a moraine (hill) running east to west along the northern rim of the GTA, all drainage on the south side flowing inexorably toward Lake Ontario, which forms Toronto’s southern edge. South flowing rivers have carved a series of wide, deep ravines, in addition to numerous smaller ones.
On the evening of October 15, 1954, I was a small boy huddling in my home as it shook to the insanely destructive fury of Hurricane Hazel—Canada’s deadliest storm ever—which killed over 80 people, most of whom drowned in the ravines. Planners learned from the tragedy and the ravines became out of bounds for residences and for most forms of building. They now form “forest corridors” linking the built-up, downtown city core with rural landscapes to the north.
Thus, many deer, coyotes, and foxes move in and out of, or are resident in, the city. Toronto’s well-nurtured “urban forest” and parklands accommodate weasels, skunks, opossums, and raccoons who wander through neighborhoods each night, searching for food. Raccoons are particularly plentiful and so adept at locating “garbage” (which is, to them, food we provide) that Toronto recently went to the expense of providing residents with raccoon-proof containers for organic (edible) waste. While the new bins are reportedly not entirely raccoon-proof, they work well enough to raise concerns about raccoons going hungry.
Periodically, there are anxieties about coyotes in the city, with experts and lay folks alike urging bylaws to oppose feeding them. And, of course, not everyone is comfortable with skunks, opossums, or even foxes in their neighborhoods.
So why, then, would any sane city council vote to reverse the efforts to take away wildlife “attractants” by allowing chicken coops? It’s not just that predators will try to dine out on chicken, but that the seeds, smells, and waste associated with keeping chickens will attract more squirrels, rats, and mice that will, in turn, attract coyotes, while the ever-resourceful and tenacious raccoons will also be attracted by what is, to them, an obvious food source.
I understand the laudable desire to avoid products from industrialized factory-farms, to be more food-independent, to have fresh produce, and to derive food from local sources, but not at the expense of the welfare of others in the neighborhood, animal and human alike. It’s a pending absurdity that need not have happened.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry