The City of Toronto licences many businesses, but pest control and wildlife removal companies are not licenced.
This means anyone with a truck, a ladder, and tools can remove animals with no training on how to handle and remove animals without harming them.
There is limited to no regulation from the province of Ontario either. The only provincial regulations are trapping licences for leghold and lethal traps and a 1km release restriction for live trapping. Under Ontario law, anyone can be a "wildlife removal agent". There is also no regulation on the term "humane".
A truly humane company never uses lethal removal. A truly humane company uses either one way doors or live traps and releases the animal in the same area. A truly humane company will check carefully for babies and will place mammal babies in a heated release box, and baby birds in an artificial nest, so the mother can still care for them. Rodents are removed using one way doors and non toxic contraception.
Some removal contractors are well meaning, but have misinformation that can harm animals. Many contractors are not aware of what time of year baby animals are born. One way doors are humane and non lethal, but they can leave baby animals behind.
Cruel companies use lethal removal such as live trap to kill, leghold traps, snap/mouse/Vector/Coneybear traps, glue traps, drown traps, electrocution traps, dry ice, vacuum and freeze traps, firearms and arrows where allowed, and rodenticide "locked" in a rodent box.
We would like the City of Toronto to ban leghold traps and all methods of lethal removal. We would like the City of Toronto to add wildlife removal and pest control companies to the list of businesses requiring a licence. We would like all wildlife removal and pest control personnel to be humane trained, and to provide a resume of prior humane handling of wildlife.
