By Jen Skerritt
Heated debate surrounding the closure of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre has prompted a city committee to recommend Ottawa collaborate with the Ministry of Natural Resources to re-establish the centre.
“This is a basic matter of common sense,” says Coun. Alex Munter. “There was a need that generated the service and the need has not gone away.”
The city’s health recreation and social services committee is also endorsing the idea of providing budget funding for the centre.
Up until last year, the volunteer-run centre provided care for more than 1,000 animals annually.
Munter says it’s in everyone’s interest to re-open it.
The centre announced its closure at the end of December in response to new guidelines set out by the ministry.
Earlier this year, the ministry imposed a regulation that requires the centre to release orphaned wildlife within one kilometre of where they were found.
It also designated Ottawa as a high-risk zone for rabies.
The ministry controls the spread of raccoon rabies by killing all raccoons, skunks, and foxes within a five-kilometre radius of where the infected animal was found.
Dr. Chris Davies, manager of the ministry’s wildlife research and development section, says there have been no cases of raccoon rabies in Ottawa because of the aggressive measures taken by the province.
“There was never any intent on our part to shut down the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre,” he says. “The ministry has been incredibly supportive of rehabilitation centres across the province of Ontario.”
Debbie Lawes, a board member at the wildlife centre, says such restrictions cause more problems than they solve and make humane rehabilitation impossible.
Lawes says without the rehabilitation centre in operation, people finding orphaned wildlife in the spring will be left with few options.
“You can leave it on the road beside its dead mother or take it to a vet at your own expense,” she says.
Lawes also says this may leave residents attempting to care for injured animals on their own, “putting themselves, their children, and domestic animals at risk.”
Ottawa Centre MPP Richard Patten says the ministry’s actions are based on “dubious and shaky research assumptions” that have left the city void of a crucial service.
“The City of Ottawa is left with a bloody mess,” says Patten. “[The ministry] has a bias against rehabilitation and I think it’s an abomination.”
Davies maintains the province is “winning the war” on the spread of the disease.
But he says the ministry is open to working together with the City and the centre.
“My preference is for animals to be rehabilitated,” says Davies.