Save Neville the coyote

I am asking the City of Toronto and the City's Animal Services Department to be open and transparent with how they deal with "Neville" the Coyote.

In correspondance with local resident Katherine Blake, who has spearheaded a petition to save "Neville", Mary Lou Leiher, Supervisor Toronto Animal Services, has indicated that the City and her department will act without the supervision or input of the concerned parties' whose tireless efforts resulted in the City's change of heart and their current plan of sparing Nevill's life, humanely trapping him instead of destroying the coyote.

The Humane Society of Canada has also heard a rumour that once captured, "Neville" would be sent to a zoo, something the animal charity opposes. "Time after time, the provincial government has failed miserably to introduce a licensing system or any meaningful laws to protect wildlife in zoos, and "Neville" should not join those wild animals already suffering in captivity," said O%u2019Sullivan.

If City Council is really serious about saving wildlife and animals, then why do they allow Toronto Animal Services to kill nearly every wild animal and bird they handle; and nearly every second dog and cat that enters their animal pounds? Politicians don%u2019t change because they see the light, they change because they feel the heat.

Killing "Neville" the coyote will not bring back the pets that have been killed, nor will it stop a second coyote from moving in to fill the habitat left behind. We need to remember that Toronto is built around an interconnecting system of ravines which act like natural corridors for wildlife. We have seen everything from foxes to deer in the city. Along with Toronto%u2019s waterfront, we are truly blessed with an abundance of wildlife, and we all need to get along. More violence is not the answer.

I am urging you to make certain that "Neville" is relocated to the wilderness and not killed.