Gassing groundhogs in Ottawa Parks is cruel, unnecessary: Ottawa Citizen

Gassing is cruel, unnecessary: humane society

Agency director tells city, park-goers: just leave the animals alone

Dave Rogers
The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Gassing groundhogs in Ottawa parks where city staff regard them as pests is cruel and unnecessary because the rodents don't bite and are no health threat, the executive director of the Ottawa Humane Society says.

"Using gas isn't humane because the animals don't die immediately," said Bruce Roney. "Gassing isn't the worst thing we see done to animals. It is nothing like a leg hold trap, but we wouldn't call it humane.

"We don't support any kind of poisoning of groundhogs. People should just leave them alone unless there is a proven problem. As for groundhogs biting people, we have never heard of that."

Alex Cullen, councillor for Bay Ward, said Monday a rash of groundhog poisonings in Andrew Haydon Park is city policy, not the work of malicious vandals. Mr. Cullen sent a letter to resident Catherine Gardner after Ms. Gardner told city authorities that groundhog burrows in the park had been filled in and the creatures have disappeared.

"People mistake them for domesticated animals, try to pet them and get bit," he said. "And they destroy the terrain" because of "the holes they make."

Groundhogs are part of the marmot family that includes the rare Vancouver Island marmot, the yellow-bellied marmot of the central Rocky Mountains and the hoary marmot found throughout British Columbia and Alaska.

Dale Philpotts, Ottawa's director of surface operations, acted on complaints about groundhog holes, applying a longstanding policy to control groundhogs when they become a nuisance or a danger.

Mr. Philpotts said there seem to be more groundhogs than usual this year. He said someone could have been injured by stepping in a groundhog hole in Andrew Haydon Park, but he has never heard of anyone being bitten by a groundhog.

Bruce Roney said the humane society was not aware that the city was poisoning groundhogs until the Citizen reported it this week.

The only real groundhog threat the humane society has found is from their burrows. Mr. Roney said groundhogs and other wild animals gather where people feed them and the best way to reduce their numbers is to stop feeding them.

Mr. Roney said groundhog holes are a danger in rural areas where they can injure horses and cattle, but it is difficult to justify eliminating them in city parks.

They don't spread rabies.

"I am not clear why everyone thinks that wildlife has to be gone -- it doesn't make sense to me," said Mr. Roney. "Groundhogs tend to be a rural problem. To my knowledge, they aren't a health hazard. They certainly don't spread rabies."

Lanark-area naturalist Ted Mosquin said groundhogs are shy, harmless and won't bite unless people try to harm them. Mr. Mosquin said groundhogs add a "positive element" to the suburban landscape and it is cruel to gas them.

"The extermination of groundhogs is part of the growing fear that you have to reduce risk everywhere," Mr. Mosquin said. "If you attacked a groundhog, it would defend itself, but it would never come after a person. The main risk is to people's gardens because they like vegetables. Sometimes they burrow into road edges, causing roads to collapse. But I have never heard of anyone being bitten by one.

"I don't think groundhog control programs are necessary in city parks. The city is probably trying to appease people who consider them to be a nuisance. How would we know when it is going to be spring without groundhogs?"

City's yard waste is safe, but groundhogs get gassed

Kelly Egan
The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

They won't pick up the yard waste, but they'll gas the groundhogs -- City Hall, standing on guard for thee!

Did you know, by the way, there are no groundhogs in Prince Edward Island? I didn't either, but they made me look it up, as part of a broader inquiry into marmota monax, the groundhog, also known as the woodchuck, the newest urban terror.

In Andrew Haydon Park, some residents are horrified to learn that the disappearance of a baker's dozen of the fat furries is, in fact, a government plot.

As part of Ottawa's rodent control program, at least as explained by Councillor Alex Cullen, the city contracted a pest control firm to kill the groundhogs in the rivershore park and fill their burrows.

"They will bite," he wrote, by way of explanation.

What, once they chase you down and hog-tie you to a tree?

I have a groundhog in the backyard, so I think I speak with some authority on this topic. He's dug four holes I can see, including the main entrance, which is so large it has valet parking.

He does not bite; he flees -- at the slightest squeak of the patio door.

Checked with an expert, but Andy Haydon was holding out on me.

"Neither," he answered, when asked if he was pro- or anti-groundhog in the park that bears his name. "It's like anything else," said the former regional chair, reached at his Ottawa home. "They have a right to exist, I suppose. I'm not gonna help you much."

Checked with another one.

Marc Chubb, vice-president of AAA Wildlife Control, a national firm, said you have more to fear from a pet dog or cat in the park than from a marauding groundhog.

"This problem, at the park, is, in my opinion, ridiculous. It's an education problem, it's not really a groundhog problem."

The firm does not kill nuisance animals -- raccoons, squirrels, skunks, groundhogs -- but specializes in humanely removing them.

For roughly $325 plus the cost of materials, it will remove a groundhog from a city home and install underground fencing that will keep it away for good.

We display strange attitudes toward the natural world, he explained.

"People love to say what beautiful greenspace we have in the city, and then the minute we run into wildlife, they want it exterminated."

Mr. Chubb said the obvious problem in Andrew Haydon Park is the feeding of groundhogs by parkgoers.

"That's a horrible thing. Animal lovers think that feeding the animals is being nice to the animals, when it's the complete opposite.

"If you truly love wildlife, leave it alone."

Feeding a wild animal only conditions it to expect food from a human, he said.

When the next person comes along, the groundhog may well act aggressively, hopping up on the bench and snapping for lunch. Now trouble starts.

Nothing really wrong with a groundhog in a park anyway, he argues.

"If I had my choice of things to live on my property or my park, it would be a vegetarian groundhog," said Mr. Chubb.

"They don't attack people. They keep to themselves. They're very shy and timid. They just don't do a lot of damage.

"Usually, when they dig a hole or make den, it's in a remote place."

Not sure I agree with that last bit.

Drive by the Carling Avenue-Queensway ramps some time in early evening. Enough groundhogs there to do the Wave.

As a society, we have an irrational relationship with wildlife -- dividing them illogically into pests or protected species. Mice, rats? Pests. Deer, moose, bears? Protected. Squirrels, groundhogs, pigeons? Kind of stuck in the middle.

I think the city has a duty to maintain its parks in good condition. If the groundhogs are creating some kind of physical hazard -- holes eroding a bike path or endangering a park bench -- then they should be removed and the burrows filled.

And, to be practical, relocating a groundhog to a new home sounds pretty silly.

On the other hand, if the beast isn't bothering anyone or anything, why kill it?

Groundhogs have long been regarded as an agricultural pest, mainly because their deep holes are a menace to livestock.

Their burrows are usually about 1.5 metres underground and have two to five entrances. The tunnels can be as long as 15 metres. There are usually two dens: one for winter hibernation, another for summer feeding.

The young are born in May and litters are between one and eight, according to A.W.F. Banfield's The Mammals of Canada. Shooting, writes Mr. Banfield, is the most effective way of controlling populations. He suggests a .22- to .25-calibre.

That's some wildlife book.

The solution at Andrew Haydon is plain to see. If we stop feeding, the city can stop killing.

Contact Kelly Egan at 726-5896 or by e-mail, kegan@thecitizen.canwest.com

Groundhogs aren't at fault

The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

City Hall should be doing more to keep groundhogs and people apart in Ottawa-area parks before it resorts to exterminating animals that pose a potential nuisance to people in city parks.

Many animal-lovers are outraged that the city ordered as many as 30 groundhogs killed at Andrew Haydon Park on the Ottawa River in Nepean. The city says it had no choice: groundhogs are a public-health threat because they might bite people, and their holes are a menace to parkgoers' ankles.

The city's manager in charge, Dale Philpotts, says groundhog problems arise in a city park about once every two or three years, and his department responds only when its staff get public complaints. Even then, he says, the city wants to "cull" the groundhogs, not eliminate them. And a quick visit to Andrew Haydon park yesterday confirms that the city's exterminator isn't waging an ongoing campaign of destruction, creeping up on the groundhogs like an assassin. On that visit, two groundhogs were found, munching through the grass, with several holes in plain view.

The groundhogs in the park are not skittish. Crouch down and extend a finger -- they'll come up, stand on their hind legs, grip and sniff. It really is plausible one could bite, say, an unattended child who tried to play with it, although the Ottawa Humane Society's Bruce Roney, who disapproves of the killing, says he's never heard of it actually happening.

The underlying problem here is that the groundhogs are living in an artificial, human-created environment. Andrew Haydon Park is a great groundhog habitat: big, green and hilly, virtually free of predators. Even dogs are banned. So groundhogs proliferate there in a way they never would in the wild. Something does have to be done to keep their numbers down, just as it would if Canada geese or rabbits were overrunning the place.

Mr. Philpotts says even if the city could justify the expense of trapping surplus groundhogs live and releasing them elsewhere, an Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources policy requires that trapped animals be let go no more than one kilometre away -- which isn't possible where an urban park is concerned.

What the city can do, he says, is put up signs warning people not to feed the animals. As appealing as a park is to groundhogs all by itself, picnic scraps make it better; the Andrew Haydon Park groundhogs' behaviour shows that somebody is feeding them by hand. Real animal-lovers wouldn't do that, since it breaks down the barrier between humans and wildlife that critics of the city's extermination policy want to preserve.

Killing the groundhogs is not an ideal solution. In principle, it seems cruel to create a park groundhogs love and then exterminate them when they try to use it. Practically, Mr. Roney points out other groundhogs will just come, even if the holes are filled. But as a last resort, if their numbers are out of control and they can't be driven out, the city should have that option, and use it.

Letter - Gassing groundhogs is unnecessarily extreme

The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Re: City admits it killed groundhogs at park due to 'health, safety,' Aug. 10.

I am shocked and outraged that city officials have hired exterminators to gas groundhogs at area parks.

The wildlife in the parks is the key reason we visit these parks. I noticed recently that the groundhog holes at the park across from Billings Bridge were filled in. Now I know why.

What is next? Gas the swans because they can possibly peck people and cause harm? What about protecting us from ducks and chipmunks?

Although the city parks department should carry most of the blame for this unnecessary, inhumane practice, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources should also be getting some of the backlash. The ministry's rules plainly are not based on any form of common sense. Why not relocate a groundhog more than a kilometre from the park? The ministry should reconsider its groundhog-relocation rules and modify them so they are based on urban reality. The city and the ministry share equally in the larger picture of our city's wildlife problems.

Earlier this summer I called my vet and the humane society about some orphaned squirrels. I was told to just leave them there and hope the mother comes back. If not, then I was to let nature take its course. If I brought them in, the humane society officials would have no choice but to euthanize them. Again, this is due to the MNR's rules.

The groundhogs are not the problem. The city parks department and the ministry should find a better alternative to just getting rid of them. Gassing and killing the animals is an unnecessarily extreme approach.

Karrie Turner,

Rockland

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