Doomed gophers have a champion

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This article was published 04/04/2015 (4019 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Gophers are gaining some support online in a bid to prevent the city from using gas to kill the rodents in public parks.

Paige McNabb, 18, created a petition Friday against the City of Winnipeg’s plans.

In about a day, she had gathered more than 350 online signatures. The city announced Wednesday it is abandoning the use of poison for gopher control in favour of sulphur smoke bombs.

“When I heard about the gassing and killing of the gophers, I was instantly upset about it,” McNabb said. “I was discussing the matter with my boyfriend when he suggested I start the petition.

“To me, it is unfair and inhumane that hundreds of gophers will die for being ‘annoying’ and just for living the lives they have adapted to over the years.”

The city said it will switch to smoke bombs because of an incident last year in which a dog became seriously ill after ingesting poison intended for gophers in Little Mountain Park.

A city spokeswoman said gopher control is a necessary procedure in parks, and that the new method has been tested.

“Gophers pose a significant risk to park users, including athletic-field participants who are at the greater risk for injury. As a result, control of gophers is necessary,” Michelle Finley wrote in an email. “It is lit and thrown into active gopher holes, where it creates a sulphur gas that asphyxiates the gophers. There is no poison remaining in the treatment area by using this product.”

McNabb, who works at a pizza parlour and will be studying nursing starting in September, said she believes the city could use different methods that wouldn’t kill the gophers.

These could include erecting warning signs in public parks or relocating the gophers, she said.

“There’s also ways that are more natural to have them leave on their own, (such as) planting a certain type of plant called euphorbia lathyris, also known as gopher spurge, which is a plant they don’t like to be around,” McNabb said.

Originally, she wanted to get 100 signatures but set a new target of 500 by Saturday after the numbers started adding up.

“I really underestimated the amount of people that agree with me and want to raise awareness for these gophers,” McNabb said.

“I’m hoping to make (city) council second-guess the decision that they are about to make.

“There is so much more we can do for these gophers instead of ending their lives in a tragic way.”

McNabb did not reveal her next step in the campaign.

Dave Domke, the city’s manager of parks and open spaces, told the Free Press last week people and dogs were suffering sprained legs because of gopher holes.

“If there is a concern, we have to try and control that problem,” Domke said.

“We’re never going to eradicate or exterminate (the gophers). We’re just trying to control them.”

A trial run of the smoke bombs last year in John Blumberg Park, he said, proved successful. The city is also considered using carbon monoxide this year.

“As a result, there should be few concerns to people, wildlife or dogs,” Finley said.

jenna.dulewich@freepress.mb.ca