In the face of deer, coyotes, skunk and foxes, how can the city of Bowling Green best deal with incursions of wild animals into city neighborhoods?
Council’s Transportation & Safety Committee began discussing the problem during a meeting on Monday. A second meeting to discuss the issue is to be planned.
“I think that the community as a whole has acknowledged that we have an issue,” said committee member Joel O’Dorisio during the meeting. “But I do feel like it’s a wholistic system that we need to set up.”
Wildlife issues have been before council in recent months. On June 17, council passed regulations prohibiting knowingly feeding deer and turkeys, and at its Aug. 5 meeting, two residents brought forward concerns about animals in their neighborhood, including skunks, raccoons, opossums and groundhogs, as well as rabid animals.
In his introductory remarks, distributed at the meeting, Committee Chair Bill Herald wrote “…it is becoming increasingly noticeable that our community has a problem with wildlife in addition to deer and turkeys. …
“There was an animal control officer until 2019,” Herald continued. “The decision was made to not fill the position when the then-current animal control officer retired. The purpose here is not to question that decision. The conditions back then may have been such that it was a prudent course of action. However, the conditions that we face now do necessitate consideration of some type of action.”
Mayor Mike Aspacher let it be known that he is not in favor of hiring a full-time animal control officer, Herald continued.
“He did state that, if council determined it as a strategic goal, the administration would study it. The mayor also brought up a very good point. It is one council and residents should constantly consider: Is this a valid function of city government?”
Issues that need to be addressed include the safety aspect, the problem being widespread, the problem appearing to be growing, and the situation where one resident could, in many cases, just allow another resident to take care of the problem.
Finally, the question is if the issue would seem worthy of consideration by council. This Transportation & Safety Committee meeting is a step in this process, Herald said.
A number of citizens spoke up during the meeting regarding their own experiences.
“It occurred to me that the reason that there are more concerns being voiced by citizens now is because it has been five years since there was an animal control officer,” said resident Rose Drain. “I would like for the city to consider ways for animals to coexist in our city with us. We have opossums and skunks in our neighborhood and they have not been a problem.” She suggested that if the city doesn’t want there to be a full-time animal control officer, “maybe a part-time one would be a solution.”
Debbie Thompson said that there have been, in addition to skunks, snakes and coyotes sighted in the city.
Sean Connor, who lives in the Belleville area, recounted an experience where she had a local business trap and remove a raccoon, but she later learned that the raccoon was later drowned in a pond by the service.
“To me that’s inhumane,” she said. Connor also reported her camera captured a fox in her yard last month, and “I do hear that the coyotes are out. … Something’s got to be done with the wildlife. It’s getting scary.”
Phil Simon, of Sand Ridge Road, said he’s had to deal with woodchucks, skunks and “diseased raccoons,” but that most concerning to him have been deer. He said that a herd of 12 lives near him and said that such a herd, statistically, can produce 70 or more offspring in five years. He suggested that managing the deer population – possibly through culling, which is utilized by Metroparks Toledo – might be an option.
Cathy Hanson, who lives near Simon, said that deer have been eating her plantings.
“I had to dig up four bushes just last weekend because the deer are eating them to where they’re not producing anymore leaves,” Hanson said.
Brenda Pike, of Haskins Road, supported the idea of a new animal control officer, stating that deer are jumping her fence and eating her garden plantings. She also observed what she called a “standoff” recently one evening between a fox and a doe attempting to protect her young at Conneaut Hill.
“I know there’s no simple solution to the deer problem, but I just think something needs to be done in town,” Pike said.
As the committee began discussing some baseline questions on the matter, member Jeff Dennis said that in the years prior to the retirement of the city’s last animal control officer in 2019, they were dealing with an average of about 190 calls per year. He noted that the city works with the Wood County Dog Warden but “it does seem now that we’ve got more of an issue with wildlife that maybe the dog warden is not addressing.” He said he was in favor of evaluating how these issues can be addressed, but that he wasn’t sure a new officer would be the best option.
O’Dorisio wondered if the city’s Parks and Recreation Department might have a role to play in addressing the issue, and that other matters, such as trash potentially attracting rodents in the city, or other easily accessible sources of food, could be playing a part.
“We can begin to look at the whole system,” he said. “We don’t need to go back to what we had, but I think there are options that” could “address the needs of the community right now.”
Later, O’Dorisio further noted that the city has “barely started the advertising campaign” to educate residents about feeding the city’s wildlife. “We’re not going to see results from that for at least a year.”
It was decided that an additional meeting will be scheduled to discuss the issue further.
