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“You see all the trees that are being taken down?” Recollet said. “The animals that live near them are being displaced. Our first relatives are the animals. We have to think about what we are doing to them.”

She was referring to one of the explanations that’s been offered as to whyÌýthe downtown coyotes became combative in recent months, killing and injuring several pets.

For manyÌýresidents in the Liberty Village neighbourhood, the city finally making what it called the “difficult decision” to shoot the coyotes came as a reliefÌý—Ìýan end to the repeatedÌýattacks on their dogs and months of anxiety. To them, the city tried too hard, for too long, to spare these wild animals, at the expense of public safety.

Ruby Kooner had been the face of a residents group urging the city to deal with the coyotes after her own pet was attacked and killedÌýlast year.

Still, she wasn’t revelling in the news this week that the coyotes had been killed, calling it “deeply saddening,” the final consequence, in her mind, of bad decision-making by the city. Some of her neighbours, meanwhile, hold the more outspoken residents responsible for the animals’ deaths.

“º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøhas to do better,” said Kooner. “A city that claims to champion coexistence, sustainability and world-class urban planning cannot continue to make reactionary, closed-door decisions in the face of ecological crises.”

The past few months didn’t justÌýpit pets against coyotes. Fearful people, misinformation, competing expert opinions and lawsuit threats collided. Residents were left frustrated by city hall. City staff were left frustrated by residents.

While many disagree on the finer points of just what happened and who was to blame, the experts concur on one thing: Before long, it could happen all over again.

How the coyote problems startedÌý

The trouble began in the fall of last year. Coyotes have roamed the Fort York-Liberty Village area in the southwest of downtown º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøfor decades, eating mice and berries.

Suddenly, there were reports that something had changed.

Accounts of bold, ferocious animals stealing small dogs in the dark of early morning rattled residents.

Kooner has lived in Liberty Village for more than three years. She’d seen coyotes before, quiet and distant, paying her dog Amber no mind. But in November, two of them attacked theÌý13-year-old brownÌýMaltese-shih tzu-poodle. As Kooner kicked at the coyotes, one bit into her dog and tried to escape with the small animal in its jaws.

She wrestled with them for Amber, carrying the dog home in her arms, bloodied, breathing shakily.Ìý

“It was horrifying,” she said. “It broke me.”

In the final weeks of Amber’s life, before bad bacteria in her blood from the bite killed her, Kooner would have her friends and family stand guard while her dog went to the bathroom outside. Both owner and pet trembled all the while.

Then, in January,Ìýa Chihuahua named Chico was abducted while out on a walk. The dog was found dead under a staircase two days later.

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Steve Mann,Ìýan inventorÌýÌýwitnessed the only confirmed coyote attack on a humanÌýin the area. It happened in Trillium ParkÌýat Ontario PlaceÌýin December while he was swimming.

“It was a completely unprovoked attack, she was just jogging,” said Mann, who rushed over after he heard screams. “The coyote was going for her legs, trying to bring her down. I had a first-aid kit, so I bandaged up her legs. Both her legs were pretty messed up. There were bite marks, and they were bleeding. We brought her up the road and called an ambulance.”

Den destruction

According to the city, nearby construction had destroyed the coyotes’ habitat, forcing them deeper into Liberty Village, with its high pet population and limited green space.

Local councillor Ausma Malik and MPP Chris Glover say they believe the provincial governmentÌýripping up a tree grove at Ontario Place in the fall to put up a spa and parking lotÌýmay have spurred the problem.

“The situation with coyotes in our downtown communities has been unprecedented following the destruction of their habitat at Ontario Place,” said Malik in a statement to the Star.

Kooner, too, blamed Ontario Place development. “That abrupt and reckless loss of habitat destabilized the local ecosystem, directly contributing to the increased aggression and tragic consequences we are now witnessing,” she said in an email to the Star this week.

Some wildlife experts say it’s possible the fast-tracked waterfront development, which wasÌýpushed through without conducting a full environmental assessment, could have displaced the coyotes and set them on edge. But others say it could easily have been any of the other recent developments in this young, dense neighbourhood. At a press conference in March, Carleton Grant, the city’s head of bylaw enforcement and administration, which includes animal services,Ìýsaid coyote dens covered in concrete were discovered in the area, but he said he did not know the precise location and did not want to “blame” anyone.

As coyotes were drawn deeper into Liberty Village, they were bound to see small pets as threats to their territory, experts say. It’s an instinct that intensifies during mating season, which happens around the first quarter of the year.

‘She was leaving them chicken’

In the view of the experts, there were some residents of Liberty Village who made the situation worse.

Some confused the wild animals with inappropriate kindness.

“She was leaving them chicken,” animal control officer Amanda Daoud said of one resident. “To her, they looked like they were starving. But they’re not, they’re just slim and athletic. After we educated her, she realized what she was doing was wrong and we haven’t had a complaint since.”

Others were careless, leaving out garbage and not picking up dog feces, which attracts both coyotes and the rats they hunt.

ManyÌýaren’t diligent about leashing their dogs. There were also residents who went on the offensive, pelting the coyotes with stones. The Star saw one resident chase a coyote with a cordless drill. One man repeatedly brought his large dog near the coyote den and unleashed it, hoping to kill them, city staff said.

The cityÌýtried for months to hammer home three things:ÌýLeash your pets, pick up after them, don’t feed the wildlife.ÌýThe advice was visible on signs posted around the neighbourhood, sent out in letters and emails, discussed at town halls, even in assemblies at nearby schools.Ìý

During an interview in March, Kooner said — as an off-leash dog passed behind her — that residents were “mixed” on the leash rule. Some coalition members felt the advice was wrong, or only being distributed to pin blame on them for what the coyotes have done to their community.

“The city says that off-leash dogs created this issue,” she said. “We will acknowledge, I’m sure, once upon a time, a dog did chase a coyote. But in our list of the attacks so far, the majority of those are leashed dogs. It shows how smart these coyotes are. I think they have realized that the off-leash dogs are a lot more nimble.”

Experts contend that coyotes don’t care about leashes — what matters to them is a dog’s proximity to a human. In a coyote’s eyes, a small free-roaming dog can look like prey or a weak rival. Dogs can also react aggressively to coyotes and put themselves in danger if a human isn’t able to restrain them.

Expert advice from an anonymous panel

Facing growing calls for action, the city put together a panel of wildlife experts.

In March, they concluded that human and coyote coexistence in the area was possible, and recommended hiring professionals to “harass” the coyotes to make them fear people again.ÌýThey askedÌýCoyote Watch Canada, a national wildlife non-profit, to do this work.ÌýConcurrently, the city got into talks with aÌýveteran trapper known as the Critter Gitter, who would kill the coyotes if they resisted harassment.

The city never revealed who sat on its panel. Members asked to have their names kept secret. The panel concluded in that if scaring the coyotes doesn’t work, the most aggressive ones should be “selectively and discreetly” shot. Killing all of them “cannot be ethically justified,” it wrote.

Animal services officers and specialists tapped by the city spent about eight hours a dayÌýfor more than eight weeksÌýpatrolling the Liberty Village and Fort York area trying to scare off coyotesÌýby running at them and snapping open garbage bags.

It worked on one of the coyote offspring, the city said, but not on the parents, whose behaviour could no longer be altered by so-called aversive conditioning.ÌýThe male was responsible for the dog attacks, the city said. HeÌýappeared to have mange on his tail, an irritating skin condition caused by burrowing mites. His mate was merely “present during some encounters,” according to the city.

A coalition forms

TheÌýcoyotes continued existence in the area, with the city’s consent,Ìýleft some residents fearful.

Kooner, a business strategist, created theÌýCoyote Safety Coalition in February.ÌýThe group hadÌýsix people on its core team andÌý.

It sent out “real-time alerts” after coyote sightings,Ìý, which allowed people to report attacks, and created charts, maps and graphics.

City staff, some group members asserted, had been hoodwinked by “pro-wildlife activists” proffering “pseudo-science.” The group tried to prompt action byÌý, holding a rally,Ìýattacking city policies publiclyÌýandÌýÌýfor what it said was Toronto’s “failure to address ongoing public safety risks.”

City officials argue the coalition was an impediment to their work. Some members, they charged, were spreading misinformation through the group about coyote behaviour that endangered people and their pets, anti-leashing theories, for example.ÌýEducating people, the city says, isÌýa key tenet of its long-term coyote plans.

Animal advocates, meanwhile, accused the group of manipulating data to portray the coyotes as more violent than they really were. Members said they were taking action to alleviate their fear. Some, Kooner included, said they would move away if the coyotes remained.

Expert vs. expert

The coalition of residents wanted its own expertise. So they called in Dennis Murray, Canada research chair in integrated wildlife conservation at Trent University. The coalition commissioned from himÌý. Murray told the Star he did the work for free, as a service to the community.Ìý

Murray is a well-regarded scientist who has worked with carnivores and prey for decades, but his expertise with urban wildlife was limited.ÌýHe told the Star the only time he dealt with city coyotes was in Moscow, Idaho, where the local police were afraid a “satanic cult” was at work killing cats. Murray, a professor at the University of Idaho at the time, concluded it was coyotes, and actually told them to spare the animals.

In Liberty Village, he came to the opposite conclusion. In his professional opinion,Ìýall the coyotes in Liberty Village needed to die.

“Might as well just remove the entire group and not let the lone coyote that’s left behind suffer some kind of weird life where the rest of its family has been eliminated,” he said.

“Hazing has been heavily promoted by Coyote Watch Canada,” said Murray in April. “But I think all it does is punt the problem down the line. At some point, someone’s going to have to realize that these animals cannot be rehabilitated.”

The Star asked Stanley Gehrt, professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University and lead investigator of the Urban Coyote Research Project in Chicago, to analyze both the panel’s report and Murray’s review.

Gehrt thought Murray was right to question the panel’s belief in hazing. There isn’t much evidence to suggest it works after coyotes have already settled into an area, he said. It’s best applied to newcomers.ÌýAnimal services staff and Coyote Watch Canada leadership told the Star in April they were optimistic about hazing, that they felt it was working on the coyotes in the area. One month and five attacks on dog laterÌý— according to the coalitionÌý—Ìýthey had to admit defeat. The older coyotes in the family had grown too bold.Ìý

GehrtÌýsaid there is “plenty of evidence” killing just one or two members of a family can reduce the level of conflicts in a given area.

“Coyotes die all the time, and, while it can be stressful to the survivors — he is correct, coyotes have tight social bonds — it isn’t something that they can’t handle,” Gehrt said.

How many coyote attacks were there?

Getting a fix on the extent of the coyote problem has been tricky.

The city said it received 310 coyote reports in the area between November and mid-April. Of those reports, 38 were deemed “dangerous acts by a coyote”Ìýafter investigation. º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøanimal services has only confirmed two dog deaths and says there was only ever one attack on a human in the area.

The coalition, meanwhile, catalogued 122 incidents in that time, including “over 90 attacks on dogs” resulting in five dog deaths. There were also four reports of attacks on a human.

Kooner said the coalition did its best to verify the reports by speaking with whoever submitted them, and trying to find corroborating witnesses.

SomeÌýLiberty Village residents felt uncomfortable callingÌý311 to report dangerous wildlife. Kooner said they found the people answering their calls were dismissive and accusatory.Ìý

“People are actually hesitant to call in because when they do, they’ve gotten responses that makes them feel like it was their fault,” she said.Ìý

The city’s expert panel recommended 311 operators “undergo sensitivity training to handleÌýreports of attack incidents with empathy and care.”

‘There is science behind this’Ìý

By this month, it was clear to most that the hazing of the coyotes wasn’t working.

News of the killings was made public by the city Tuesday.

The city says the two orphaned coyotes are “displaying fear of humans again.” One moved on from the area naturally and there have been no reports of “escalated aggressive behaviour” from the other.Ìý

The area remains full of wildlifeÌý“attractants” and pets.ÌýParks and public walkways in the area are speckled with feces and food, and roamed by off-leash dogs.

It is highly likely a new coyote family will move into the area before long, experts say. That should be a good thing, ecologically speaking. Daoud, the animal control officer, pointed out that coyotes play an integral role in the ecosystem by controlling the rabbit and squirrel population, which she said is growing because people keep feeding them, too.

Gehrt, the expert the Star consulted before the coyotes were put down, said what happens nextÌýdepends on the humans.

“Lethal removal ... will be temporary unless the food and pet ownership issues are addressed,” he said. “There is science behind this. It is very rare to permanently exterminate coyotes from an area. Coyotes that are removed will be replaced by others.”