People, not raccoons, are the problem in Toronto, city report finds

It’s official — humans are the problem, not the raccoons knocking over their green bins and lurking under their decks.

Toronto’s licensing and standards committee on Monday approved a city staff report that concludes the focus should be on “human behavioural contributors to urban wildlife issues,” rather than critter control.

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (open Glenn De Baeremaeker's policard), an avowed animal lover on the committee, said Torontonians need to be educated that they attract wildlife with a “buffet” of compost piles, bird feeders and insecure green bins.

And a stack of rocks left in a backyard is also a “rat condo” that heats up by day and keeps rodents toasty by night.

“Prevention is better than cure, and I think, for all of these issues, we can help people and wildlife minimize conflicts,” De Baeremaeker said.

The committee’s goodwill for creatures great and small did, however, stop at rats and mice.

“I’m not sure I’d want to save their lives,” said Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti (open Giorgio Mammoliti's policard). “I think my constituents would want to get rid of them as quick as they see them and quite frankly so do I.”

Council will have final say on the recommendations to improve city educational materials and efforts and explore the feasibility of a bylaw prohibiting Torontonians from feeding wildlife on private property.

Committee members also want full council to have options to extend funding in the 2016 budget to the cash-strapped Toronto Wildlife Centre, which picks up much of the city’s slack in human-animal interactions.

The committee’s chair, Councillor Cesar Palacio (open Cesar Palacio's policard), added a successful motion for city staff to consider the feasibility of a bylaw to ban “the feeding of pigeons in public spaces in Toronto.”

Mammoliti warned him, however, that he has pondered such a ban but was told pigeons are “protected by the war veterans and it might become a real issue.”

De Baeremaeker chimed in: “The pigeon lobby is vicious.”