The London Free Press has reported on both incidents which occurred within days of each other.
In the first incident, at Western University, the head of campus police indicated he doesn’t think poison was involved – a suggestion made by our friend Lesley Sampson of Coyote Watch Canada, who wanted a necropsy performed.
“One of them for sure was shot. I can’t be so sure of the other one,” John Carson, the head of campus security, told the Free Press. “My suspicion is the animals were encroaching on someone’s property.”
While Mr. Carson’s investigative techniques may have satisfied him – enough so that he ordered the bodies destroyed in the city’s incinerator without further investigation – it isn’t enough for us.
Two cases of coyotes dying under unknown – if not downright mysterious – circumstances, with their bodies positioned in visible areas? That’s not an accident. That’s not a lazy hunter or trapper. That’s someone who wants to show off their work, or make a statement with the blood of coyotes.
A combination of conservation officers, provincial police and wildlife experts should be brought in to find out what happened – and perhaps, more importantly, why it happened. Because we have a feeling that this is just the start in a dark story.
UPDATE
The Ministry of Natural Resources is now investigating the Parkhill incident, AM980 reports, but are allowing Western University's campus police to investgate the other incident.
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