City gives itself grace in roadkill removal

Cadaver collection time frame extended as targets become increasingly hard to hit

- BEN SPURR

The city of Toronto has come up with a solution to taking too long to collect dead animals: it’s given itself more generous deadlines.

According to a presentation” going to council’s service excellence committee on Friday, Toronto Animal Services (TAS) has been falling short of its response standard for “cadaver removal.” The presentation also found TAS didn’t hit targets for service requests about dangerous dog and coyote attacks, and sick or injured animals.

Under the old standard, the division aimed to respond to cadaver removal requests within 48 hours, 80 per cent of the time. But last year, TAS met the target for just 63 per cent of the more than 11,000 requests it responded to.

The presentation states that in March, in order to “set more realistic expectations,” TAS set a new removal standard of five business days.

Coun. Paula Fletcher (Ward 14, Toronto—Danforth) said she’s concerned the new timeline, which could result in dead animals being left out for a week, is too long.

“I got an email this week about a rotting corpse on the street that was swollen and stinky,” she said. “I think we need to be picking up wildlife better.”