‘We failed’: Vigil held for Stanley Park coyotes amid cull

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Over a dozen people opposing the coyote cull at Vancouver’s Stanley Park gathered Wednesday morning to mourn the deaths of the animals.

Erin Ryan, the board president of the animal rights group The Fur-Bearers, calls the killings “a result of inaction.”

Ryan tells CityNews she hopes the Vancouver Park Board sees this demonstration as a message “that killing animals is not an acceptable or a long term solution to preventing or mitigating conflicts with wildlife.”

“What we really hope to see is a wildlife feeding bylaw and enforcement system to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Forests confirmed four coyotes were trapped in Stanley Park and euthanized following a number of unprovoked attacks on humans.

The Ministry added, long-term safety plans are in the works to address people’s behaviour, as well as access to food and garbage for animals.

In late August, the Vancouver Park Board announced it would be closing the green space even earlier every night. The park continues to be off-limits in the early hours of the morning.

Related articles:

• Four Stanley Park coyotes killed one week into cull

• Stanley Park coyotes to be trapped, euthanized in the coming days

• Thousands sign petition to ‘Save Vancouver’s Coyotes’

• Stanley Park coyote cull is result of human mismanagement: lawyer

#coyotevigil now in front of @ParkBoard. We need to do better. For wildlife and people. #StanleyPark is for both. #coexistence. Thank you @sarahblyth for organizing. pic.twitter.com/FnRzEnJNL1

— Rebeka Breder (@animallawcanada) September 15, 2021

However, Ryan says she’s disappointed actions didn’t come sooner.

“It’s disappointing that it took so long before the park board was closing certain areas to try to protect people because this could have been done much, much earlier when the first incident was reported back in December.”

Since December 2020, more than 40 people have been hurt by coyotes in Stanley Park, including several children.