A new academic paper by a Trent University biologist suggests Toronto needs to revamp its approach to coyote control in a way that’s raising the hackles of some animal lovers.
Lead author Dennis Murray says coyotes that become a persistent nuisance should be euthanized. And he says the city waits too long before exercising that option in the hope that the problem coyote will leave the affected neighbourhood on its own.
“Right now it’s just head in the sand and hope for the best,” Murray said of the city’s coyote coexistence and response strategy, which was just approved by council last year.
Toronto has experienced a spike in encounters between coyotes and people in recent years, particularly in the downtown Liberty Village and Fort York neighbourhoods.
Since 2020, there have been nine incidents where people in Toronto have been bitten by coyotes, according to statistics provided by city staff, and hundreds of dogs have been attacked — some of them fatally.
“Programs to remove coyotes in North America have been historically costly, ineffective, and at times counterproductive,” wrote city spokesperson Mahreen Dasoo in an email.
“Removal does not address the contributing factors for why conflicts between problematically behaving coyotes and humans occur.”
Although there have been no attacks on humans in Toronto so far this year, three people were bitten by coyotes last month in the Greater Toronto Area — including a Whitby toddler who was bitten on the face and seriously injured.
After a series of attacks on dogs in the Liberty Village area last year, the city narrowed the problem down to four animals, two of which were euthanized. The other two coyotes left the neighbourhood, according to a city news release from May 2025.
A month later, the city finalized its updated coyote response strategy, which relies heavily on educating the public about coyote behaviour as well as aversion methods.
According to the city’s strategy, aversion, or hazing, includes doing things like waving coloured garbage bags at an approaching coyote, yelling, clapping, blowing a whistle, brandishing a cane or throwing a tennis ball or a small pebble or stick in the direction of the animal.
But Murray argues in his peer-reviewed paper published July 15 in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, that hazing is often a failure when it comes to keeping coyotes away from pets and people.
“Studies reveal that hazing produces measurable avoidance only when applied consistently and intensively in early stages of habituation, and even then effects are typically shortlived,” he wrote in the paper, which was co-written with two members of the Coyote Safety Coalition, a Liberty Village-based community group that wants the city to do more to remove coyotes from the neighbourhood.
The paper also criticizes municipalities for relying too heavily on a co-existence philosophy, rather than making safety the priority.
The city’s new coyote strategy lays out a tiered approach to coyote sightings in urban neighbourhoods, categorizing coyote encounters from a simple sighting in a populated area, up to an attack on a human.
In between are other increasingly serious interactions, matched with corresponding remedies.
If a coyote enters a person’s yard, staff advise hazing. If the animal chases a human, the prescription is “installing additional and/or customized coyote signage … consider offering public education sessions.”
If a pet is attacked while on a leash, the city says the response should be “proactive patrol or educational visit and/or closure of a pathway or park.”
In the worst cases — an attack on a human — the city strategy includes an investigation involving multiple steps, including determining “if the attack was provoked.” In these cases, the remedies include euthanization or relocation to a wildlife sanctuary.
In an interview with CBC Toronto, Murray said the city’s strategy has not worked, largely because the city waits too long before opting to euthanize problem coyotes.
“You can wave the garbage bag at them all you want, but they’re not going to be broken of this behaviour pattern,” he said. “And there comes a point where you need to opt for more invasive procedures to end this kind of situation.”
Murray recommended that municipalities use the findings in his paper to develop more effective coyote control strategies.
“The municipality can arm itself with better information to make more educated decisions and more timely decisions.”
Not in favour of culls
Murray emphasized that he’s not in favour of widespread coyote culls, instead saying repeat offenders should be identified and those problem animals alone should be euthanized.
Dasoo told CBC Toronto in her email that emphasizing coexistence and hazing works.
“The City takes a coexistence-based approach to coyote management because evidence and experience have shown that long-term prevention, public education, reducing attractants and aversion conditioning are effective ways to maintain boundaries between humans and wildlife,” she wrote.
“Coexistence programs are considered a best practice in wildlife management and also support public health and the environment by allowing coyotes to continue their natural role in controlling rodent and small animal populations.”
Animal rights group Animal Justice questions the paper’s conclusions.
Executive director Camille Labchuk says lethal responses are never appropriate, no matter what a coyote has done in a community.
“I think simply killing coyotes for a problem that humans have created, which is their habitat loss and destruction, is really an unfair solution and not one that most people support,” she said in an interview with CBC Toronto.
Labchuk suggested relocation could be an answer for coyotes that become too aggressive with people or pets.
However, the city’s new policy states that while relocation is possible in other jurisdictions, typically as a last resort, “it is not a feasible option for the Toronto context.”
Provincial rules stipulate that wild animals can’t be relocated more than a kilometre from the spot where they were trapped, and that cities must obtain provincial permission to relocate an animal to a sanctuary.
Murray says moving coyotes to other jurisdictions often doesn’t work because they’re naturally territorial and may return, while moving a nuisance coyote to another jurisdiction just makes it another municipality’s problem.
In Liberty Village, Murray’s conclusions got a lukewarm reception from dog owners who spoke with CBC Toronto.
Most, like Elanja Corosky, were against euthanasia generally.
“As an animal lover, I don’t want to see any animal put down,” she said, noting that includes coyotes. “At the same time, if they are causing more of a threat, then it is an issue that I think should be dealt with.”
