In the News

"The cruel fate of the exotic animal"

Copyright Southam Publications Inc. Nov 26, 2008

We all now know of the unfortunate fate of the red-necked wallaby that had escaped from its weather-damaged pen near Kemptville. It was found dead in a cornfield, a couple of kilometres from where it was kept.

Until we learned that, the search for it drew fable-like interest, encouraging visions of a little three-foot high marsupial hip-hopping merrily like the Easter bunny throughout rural Eastern Ontario. It made for great copy and cute quips by radio morning show hosts.

The story, now all but forgotten as these stories usually are, should have served as a cautionary tale of our ill-fated demand for the exotic-animals industry in Ottawa.

Instead, it attracted 20 volunteers on a wild goose chase after claims the animal had been spotted near West Hunt Club and Richmond roads, but "quickly hopped away before he could be caught."

Maps and reports placed him as far south as Athens near Brockville, as far west as Big Rideau Lake and as far north as Ottawa.

I'm sorry this creature died. But did anyone really expect it was going to end happily? That is, concluding like a Hollywood movie in an emotional reunion between its frantically searching owners and a creature whose native lands are on the other side of the world?

By assigning sub-human qualities to it, and imprinting pet-like conditions on other exotic, locally owned creatures, reality -- as it regularly is in this city -- can become an inconvenient truth. This animal was alone on an alien landscape, and probably died from exposure, dehydration, starvation or a combination of all three.

It was a cruel end, but nature itself was not the antagonist. It never is.

Remember when an exotic wild boar was killed by a truck near Spencerville in October? It proved to be part of a fugitive group "on the run" since their escape from an Embrun-area farm in April.

"At approximately 80 kilometres away, this would be the farthest sighting so far of the animals, which had eluded capture by hiding in cornfields and woodlots," an Oct. 31 Citizen report said.

The story didn't catch the public's attention because boars are ugly. And yet, the fallout from their escape was far broader than the unintended roaming of a wayward wallaby; boars can live and procreate in our environment. It can become an invasive species, with unknown implications for native wildlife.

It was thought that 11 of the 16 animals that escaped their pen, initially raised to supply meat to restaurants, had either been killed by vehicles, hunters or farmers.

However, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources said wild boars can quickly establish a native population and it was unclear how many piglets might have been born after the animals escaped from the farmer's heavily snow-damaged fences.

There are others. Fallow deer escape from a commercial venison operation in the Kingston area. Exotic rabbits make a break from a breeder west of North Gower, and establish a native population.

And those are just what we hear about.

Anyone with an appreciation of the difficulty of raising domestic livestock will know cattle and sheep get past fencing and pens routinely, especially when financially and labour-pressed farmers can't mend them fast enough. Usually, in the case of hooved animals, they're quietly rounded up.

But sometimes, they die from exposure to the elements, or end as prey for native predators like coyotes, wolves or roaming dogs. That's just the way it is in the country.

A Vars woman made headlines in August when she saw a weird animal "like a coyote but bigger" that had attacked one of their five-month old goats, which had escaped through a small hole when it was attacked.

The family had also lost five of 12 chickens, and they too were not in their usual coop when they were killed.

Again, like the other examples above, these animals weren't properly contained. The wolf, as it has been for centuries, was deemed the villain.

But if you're instead tempted to point an accusing finger at the owners, consider that they wouldn't be raising them if there weren't a market.

In every case, the existence here of exotic animals reflects the demand for the different, the offbeat, the exotic.

In this regard, pet-owning citizens are no different.

We've heard stories about exotic snakes being found in apartments. Caged exotic birds will fly out the door if they have a chance. Just last week, there was a poster circulating in our neighbourhood, offering a reward for an escaped budgie.

In every case, these birds will die of dehydration or starvation because they were raised in a pet store. For them, the Canadian outdoors is as alien and as dangerous as the dark side of the moon is for us.

To pretend otherwise, that the creature is somehow returned to nature, lays bare a yawning ignorance of the way our northern landscape works -- and has for millennia.

Literally, we should know better. Our view of nature has turned upside down. We are increasingly viewing our own native wildlife as interlopers. Think coyotes killing Lhaso Apso dogs in Greely. Think fishers killing cats in Stittsville.

It has been said that nature is cruel. But in the context of our increasing illiteracy of our own surroundings, I will leave it to you to decide what or who is causing cruelty to animals.

Joe Banks is a former rural Ottawa community newspaper editor and publisher and lives in Osgoode village.

Credit: Joe Banks; Citizen Special