Who's responsible for what?
The Ministry of Natural Resources helps landowners and municipalities deal with human-wildlife conflict by providing information on managing problem animals and hiring a wildlife control agent.
Municipalities who wish to do so may use hunters or trappers to hunt or trap specific problem coyotes (and other furbearing mammals), such as those that are killing livestock. Municipalities may use or employ licensed hunters or trappers to harvest furbearing mammals to help resolve coyote conflicts within their municipal boundaries without obtaining approval from MNR.
Ministry of Natural Resources authorization must be obtained under specific circumstances for other species, including white-tailed deer or elk, that are causing damage.
Prevention first
There are several ways landowners, including municipalities, can discourage coyotes from entering their property. These include keeping the areas near buildings free from clutter, cutting down grass and weeds and repairing any openings under buildings where coyotes may den or bed down.
Help available for landowners who have lost livestock
Under the Ontario Wildlife Damage Compensation Program, livestock and poultry producers are entitled to make claims to their local municipality for livestock losses attributable to attacks by wolves, coyotes or dogs.
For more information on livestock predation visit ontario.ca/predation
Lethal action as a last resort
A landowner may humanely kill or trap coyotes that are damaging or about to damage their property. Firearm regulations and municipal by-laws must be followed.
Landowners in central and northern Ontario — roughly north of the Severn River, Bancroft and Pembroke — must report coyotes killed in protection of property to their local Ministry of Natural Resources office.
