Animal Justice is celebrating a huge win for ground squirrels in Winnipeg! After months of advocacy from Animal Justice, along with scientific experts and local animal protection groups, Manitoba Environment and Climate Change Minister Mike Moyes denied the city a permit to gas ground squirrels.
Ground squirrels are clever and curious rodents, known for building complex burrows to protect their families from predators. The City of Winnipeg was planning to use “Giant Destroyer” brand sulfur gas bombs in athletic fields and parks to massacre ground squirrel families in their burrows. Animal Justice consulted experts, worked with local groups, and wrote to the city and province, explaining that the plan was not only cruel and inhumane, but also ineffective. More than 6,000 members of the public also submitted comments opposing the plan.
Minister Moyes made the science-based and compassionate decision to reject the City’s pesticide permit request, citing the clear availability of more effective, humane alternatives to dealing with ground squirrel holes in athletic fields. When Animal Justice visited one of the fields on the list last week, we were surprised to see very few holes near baseball diamonds. Thankfully, the province is encouraging the City of Winnipeg to consider filling in any holes that pose a risk, rather than gassing entire colonies.
Archaic & Cruel Gas Bombs
Sulfur bombs release toxic sulfurous gases into burrows, killing ground squirrels and all other animals present. Even when all openings are closed and the product is used according to label instructions, it can cause a long and excruciating death that takes up to an hour or more.
But burrows often have multiple escape entrances, and applicators commonly miss some of them. This renders the cruel poison even less effective at causing a quick death, and ultimately kills only some animals, leading to repeated gassings.
The fact that Winnipeg originally planned to use Giant Destroyer from May 20 until October was also extremely problematic in light of ground squirrels’ life cycle. By May, many young have already been born, with their mothers nursing babies in nest burrows. Gassing the squirrels in May would have resulted in the slow, painful deaths of not just adult animals, but entire families. After June, many adult squirrels are already back in hibernation, making the continued use of lethal gassing essentially pointless. By gassing ground squirrels into the fall, the City would have been killing only the young of the year, 70-90 percent of whom will not survive their first hibernation anyway.
Compassionate Step in the Right Direction
The province of Manitoba has stepped up to protect this iconic prairie species from needless suffering. Humans have a responsibility to coexist with the animals who share our communities. Rather than reactively killing ground squirrels each year after they’ve already established burrows and reproduced, the City should invest in long-term strategies to prevent overpopulation in problematic areas. Habitat modification, public education, and timely, non-lethal interventions are key.
