HOME February 10, 2012 The Magazine | Digital Edition | Subscribe | Newsletters
Advertisement
The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
(Image: Salim Virji)
Dear Urban Diplomat,
I accidentally killed a cat with my car. It didn’t having any tags on it, so I scooped up the body and buried it in my yard. A few days later, I ran into a couple who lives on my block putting up posters for their missing kitty. I was so taken aback that when they asked if I’d seen her, I blurted out “No” and rushed off. First I killed their pet, then I lied about it. I feel awful. Should I tell them?
—Cat Got My Tongue, CASA LOMA
Raccoons are everywhere, and at all times of the day. They’re a menace to private property and public health. It’s time we stopped pretending the city is a wildlife preserve
It is an uncomfortable truth about Toronto: when it comes to raccoons, murderous thoughts abound. Most of us would never act upon them, but on a Wednesday morning in early June, Dong Nguyen, a 53-year-old west-end resident, did. Nguyen allegedly took his garden spade to a litter of baby raccoons, injuring one and killing another. The incident and its polarizing aftermath were widely reported on, and Nguyen had at least as many sympathizers as detractors. Posters appeared around Bloor and Lansdowne featuring Nguyen’s perp-walk photo and the message “Get out of our neighbourhood you disgusting animal torturer.” Other area residents held an anti-raccoon rally. Raccoons were the Talk Radio Topic of the Week.
Tim Trow had one sacred rule for the Toronto Humane Society: save every pet. But the shelter grew overcrowded and chaotic, the staff mutinied, and the police shut the place down.
Tim Trow, in his midtown home, became obsessed with animal welfare during a childhood spent on a North York farm (Image: Rob MacInnis)
Bandit was less than two years old when he arrived in August 2003 at the squat River Street building occupied by the Toronto Humane Society. A dark brown pit bull–Labrador cross with a square face, he was surrendered by his owner after he attacked her three-year-old grandson, leaving him with head wounds that required 200 stitches.
Bandit found an ally in Tim Trow, the society’s president at the time. Trow, a tall, imposing 300-pound lawyer with short greying hair, kept the dog loose and unmuzzled in the THS meeting room he used as his office. They shared the space with as many as 30 caged cats and kittens. Bandit would bark and lunge at their cages, and once closed his powerful jaws on a mother cat’s front paw, pulling off the skin and tissue—“degloving” it, as veterinarians say—and fracturing several bones. Read the rest of this entry »
A Toronto pet licence application: dogs cost $60 (unaltered) or $25 (sterilized); cats cost $50 (unaltered) or $15 (sterilized). Seniors get a 50 per cent discount.
Here’s a new entry in the “good in theory, not in practice” file. Toronto brought in a pet-licensing system to help control the animal population—and yes, the animal population, especially cats, is out of control. The problem is that due to lack of enforcement and really, really low participation from the public (90 per cent of pet owners couldn’t be bothered), the system is basically worse than useless. It offends pet owners, who feel like they’re being asked to license their kids, and it doesn’t bring in any money. So the city is doing the sensible thing and looking at ditching the system.
Read the rest of this entry »
Read the rest of this entry »
The woman fighting for local homeowners’ right to keep live fowl on their property—known only as Toronto Chicken—is gaining support on city council. A plan is in the works to make backyard chickens legal, just like they are in other cities, and city councillor Joe Mihevc is on board. This is not a huge news story, but try telling that to the Toronto Sun, which put it on the front page and used the story as an excuse to run a series of chicken-related puns. To save readers time, we’ve compiled them here, from the egg-regious to the fowl.
Ever since Zoe the chihuahua was snatched from her yard in the Beach, the coyote has replaced Walmart as the area’s public enemy number one. To get rid of them humanely, Toronto Animal Services has employed scare tactics—paintball guns and air horns—in nearby ravines, but in the meantime, there’s no need to ban backyard fun: Zoe’s fate isn’t the norm, and unless you’re Mickey Rourke, your child probably isn’t a chihuahua. Generally speaking, coyotes approach human territory only when tempted by a food source, and even then, they aren’t likely to attack . The closest Toronto has come to coyote-human combat was in 2003, when an animal nipped four people in two North York parks. In that case, a local had been feeding the coyote cooked chicken. Understandably, the hungry canine was peeved to discover not all park-goers are packing poultry.
• Question from Rochelle Armour in Hogg’s Hollow
Wondering about the waterfront? Curious about construction? Perplexed by politics? Ask the Urban Decoder a question here.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
© 2012. All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part strictly prohibited. Toronto Life is a registered trademark of Toronto Life Publishing Company Limited
Follow Toronto Life on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS