Deer hunting in Rouge Park concerns area resident

Man finds arrow in body of dead deer
By MIKE ADLER

February 03, 2009 5:20 PM

The object Andy McKinnon has in a plastic container is the head of a hunting arrow with razor-sharp fins.

On it is the frozen tissue of a male deer - one of three McKinnon, a photographer and amateur naturalist, saw wandering wounded through the Rouge Park in Scarborough last week.

Days later, he pulled the broken arrow from a fresh deer carcass by the Little Rouge River, west of Meadowvale Road.

"He probably had this in him for four days at least," McKinnon, who has been taking pictures of a "bachelor herd" of deer in the park for years and claims
he can recognize its members, added this week.

Having warned authorities before about illegal hunters in the park, he's disgusted by a new apparent trend causing the animals more pain and suffering.

"Now they're not even killing animals, they're just hurting them."

McKinnon said he'll bring the arrow - along with a lot of questions about the persistence of illegal hunting, dumping, woodcutting and snowmobiling in the park - to park authorities on Friday.

The meeting of the Rouge Alliance is at the Toronto Zoo. Alliance members can't look at the bloody arrow head "and not say something needs to be done," McKinnon said.

"We want to call them out on what's going on."

One problem is McKinnon, as a member of the public, isn't on the meeting's agenda. He said the Alliance refused him time for a presentation and suggested he wait for April, but more deer could be shot by then.

Alliance chairperson Alan Wells, however, said he told McKinnon the agenda - with four lengthy presentations scheduled - was full and he could get as much time as he wanted in April. McKinnon could still opt to speak for five minutes, Wells said.

"He didn't formally request to be on the agenda or he would have," said Wells, denying the Alliance was "censoring" McKinnon.

"If the board wants to hear him, fine."

McKinnon and other Rouge-watchers are disappointed the Alliance's plan for a park ranger program has not progressed since it was suggested two years ago.

Toronto police, Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority all enforce laws in the park, including its hunting ban, "but they're not there all the time," said Wells.

Wells said the Alliance still backs a ranger program and hopes money for it will be in this year's city budget.

"In the meantime, it appears people continue to poach."

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources district manager Tracy Smith said the ministry takes poaching complaints seriously and added anyone who sees hunting in the park should call the MNR's Aurora office or its tips line, 1-877-847-7667.

Pickering councillor and Alliance member Jennifer O'Connell said hunters in the park are a safety concern.

"They should be apprehended and prosecuted," she said last week, arguing the park needs an action plan for security and rangers are the best option. "This needs to be on the agenda as soon as possible."