Torontonians are complaining online about the city’s slow response to picking up dead animals, as the city faces an increased number in calls to its non-emergency line.
A Reddit user recently posted a picture of a city-made sign on when to call the city’s service line, 311, or 911 by comparing a racoon and a person being hit by a car.
“This is a good indicator of where we are as a city,” the caption read.
The post sparked conversation among Toronto residents and some comments detail negative experiences residents have had with calling 311 to pick-up dead wildlife.
“We’ve called 311 for dogs on the roadway, and they’re absolutely useless for that. They are really just a bureaucratic ”incident reporting’ hotline, and might resolve your issue in 5-15 business days,” one Reddit user said.
“That’s how we ended up making a sidewalk raccoon a posthumous celebrity a few years back,” one person commented.
READ MORE: Museum of Toronto resurrects viral raccoon with memorial almost ten years later
“I called for a dead fox at the corner of Dupont and Davenport, at the bus stop, and then every time I waited for the bus there, I got to see and smell it slowly decompose as no one did anything. Brilliant,” another person commented.
Others said their experiences haven’t been as bad.
“I called 311 to report a sick raccoon on a Sunday and they picked it up later that afternoon. I suspect they prioritize things like live animals so picking up dead animals may be deprioritized,” one Reddit user commented.
“My experience was much different with 311. Reported a dead goose in a park in the morning, by the afternoon I had an email telling me the remains had been taken care of,” another user said.
CITY FACING INCREASE IN 311 CALLS
In response to these complaints, the city claims 311 is backed up with a high number of cadaver removal requests right now, with an increase of 12.6 per cent in calls since Oct. 6, 2023.
“Additional City resources have been accessed to help bring the cadaver pick up delay back to regular service levels. Animal cadavers are not considered to pose a health and safety risk to the public,” City of Toronto Senior Communications Coordinator Shane Gerard told Now Toronto in an email on Tuesday.
Gerard explains animal cadaver pickup usually occurs within 48 hours, but there are times when cadaver pickup requests coincide with requests from other animal service categories, ultimately extending pickup times. Also, calls responding to sick, injured, and other live animals are given a more urgent response.
“The overall time frame was recently extended to five days to ensure public expectations of this service were consistent throughout the year, even though the actual service delivery will generally be less than five days,” Gerard said.
However, city councillors Brad Bradford and Jennifer McKelvie proposed to create a strategy to address the uptick in cadaver service requests in a recent motion submitted onOct. 9.
According to the decision, current wildlife cadaver removal has the lowest Municipal Licensing and Standards service standard performance, with calls being answered only 62 per cent of the time.
The motion urges the city to return to answering these service requests at 90 per cent and addressing these issues within the previous standard of 48 hours.
“Our constituents deserve better. Residents should not be expected to witness a cadaver decompose for more than a week, resort to hiring a private company, or – worst of all – attempt to handle the situation themselves. It’s more than unpleasant and a nuisance. This is a public health and safety issue,”Bradford stated in the motion.
