‘Something is taking our cats’
In the city’s west end, more than a dozen pet felines have disappeared
By Michael Stittle
Local News - Tuesday, September 13, 2005 @ 07:00
The apparent disappearance of more than a dozen cats in Kingston’s west end has worried residents fearful that a displaced wild animal is preying on neighbourhood pets.
“Something is taking our cats,” resident Darlene Daly said yesterday.
She estimates that up to 15 cats have disappeared in just two weeks. Her own cat, Louie, has been missing since Wednesday. Daly, who lives on Grandtrunk Avenue in Waterloo Village, wonders if nearby construction has displaced a fisher.
A fisher is a small omnivore, typically about three feet (90 centimetres) long from head to tail, that preys on other mammals, including mice, squirrels and porcupines.
The fisher is a member of the same family as weasels, mink, otter and skunk. It has a long, slender body, with short legs and furry tail.
A railway overpass is being built through the wetland just south of Waterloo Village that will allow Centennial Drive to connect from Bath Road to Taylor-Kidd Boulevard.
The overpass construction has cut a large swath through the greenbelt and wetland surrounding a branch of the little Cataraqui Creek.
Daly said a resident recently spotted what appeared to be a fisher in a backyard.
It’s not just that cats are missing, she said. “We’ve noticed there are no skunks in the area,” Daly said. “I haven’t seen rabbits out either.”
Fishers are nocturnal animals that prefer hunting snowshoe hares, although they kill other small mammals.
Ken Gilpin, an animal control officer for Kingston, said fisher sightings are no longer rare. He’s heard of several in the past three to five years.
Gilpin is skeptical that the construction displaced a fisher.
“It’s always a possibility if they were living there,” Gilpin said. “But a fisher tends to migrate, and it goes in a large area.”
Eugene DeShane, senior fish and wildlife technician for the Ministry of Natural Resources, agrees.
“It could be just passing through,” DeShane said.
He added that fishers have a large home range of movement: 38 square kilometres for males and 15 square kilometres for females. A fisher in the area could have come from anywhere, he believes, although they definitely feed on cats and will hunt them.
His advice for owners is to keep their pets inside from early evening to late morning.
It’s something DeShane’s wife does herself, ever since they saw a fisher on their property – just an hour’s drive north of Kingston – two years ago.
“My wife puts our cat in the garage every night because she’s afraid a fisher’s going to get it,” DeShane said.
“That’s just a precaution you take, because they’re more nocturnal. They travel at night.”
If a fisher is responsible for the missing cats, there’s little else for residents to do. According to DeShane, wild animals can be caught in traps, but can only be moved one kilometre away from where they were found.
Concerned residents might have to wait for any possible fishers to run out of food.
“If there’s no food there, [the fisher] is going to go someplace else,” DeShane said.
He added that fishers prefer wooded areas and usually travel close to water.
Fishers have always been in Ontario, but have begun to migrate south from the Canadian Shield in the past few years. Fishers have also reportedly been migrating north from the United States.
