An explosion of distemper cases among St. Thomas’ wildlife has prompted the city to take a more proactive role dealing with sick or injured skunks and raccoons.
An explosion of distemper cases in skunks and raccoons has prompted St. Thomas officials to change how they respond to sick and injured animals.
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St. Thomas city council voted to expand the role of the city’s animal services in picking up sick or injured skunks and raccoons after an animal-rehabilitation clinic asked for help due to widespread cases of distemper in the animals this year.
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“The reason we were really pushing this issue is because we want those animals out of the population because it spreads like wildfire,” said Carol Clarke, who runs Another Chance Wildlife Rescue.
Distemper is a disease caused by the highly contagious canine distemper virus that infects the respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, spinal cord and brain, and is common and widespread in Ontario infecting animals such as dogs, coyotes, foxes, wolves, skunks and raccoons. The disease is not transferable to humans.
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The expansion of St. Thomas’s policy will enable the city’s animal services to pick up sick and injured skunks and raccoons on both public and private property but animals in or under private structures will be the owner’s responsibility to contact a pest control company.
Prior to council’s vote on Monday, city staff would only collect sick or injured raccoons on public property.
Clarke said the rescue always has had raccoons with distemper but the number of skunks infected with distemper has skyrocketed this year.
Last year, Clarke’s organization encountered two skunks with distemper the entire year, she said. So far in 2024, Clarke said she has collected more than 40 skunks in St. Thomas with the disease.
“We couldn’t believe it,” Clarke said. “It was crazy.”
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A city staff report said the disease usually spreads between May and November, but the mild winter has led to a “sustained level of spread that continued into this spring.”
It’s not just St. Thomas that is seeing a spike in distemper cases this year.
Colleen Burns runs Fur-Ever Wild Rehabilitation in Port Stanley, and services surrounding areas such as Union, Sparta and Belmont. Burns said she’s been busy since the first day of 2024.
“New Year’s Day was the first call I got, and I got two calls in one day and never stopped,” Burns said.
So far this year, Burns said she encountered about 40 raccoons with distemper in Port Stanley alone. Burns said it’s a significant increase from about a dozen she usually comes across for an entire year.
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London’s Animal Care Center also has seen a higher volume of calls for skunks and around double for raccoons, said supervisor Jamie Round.
But Round couldn’t say how many of the calls were for distemper, noting cases of the disease have “peaks and valleys.”
Wildlife organizations such as the ones run by Clarke and Burns are authorized by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, but don’t receive financial support and rely on public donations and volunteers to operate.
St. Thomas city hall’s expanded services allow wildlife organizations to participate in other capacities rather than taking wildlife to be euthanized.
“We have better things to do than pick up animals that need to be put down,” Clarke said. “We’re swamped right now because it’s baby season (and) I would rather devote my time to rescuing the babies and helping them, than picking up sick raccoons and skunks and taking them to be euthanized.”
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