Dead geese were found in Whitby, and wildlife experts believe avian flu is the cause
Brampton city officials also believe avian influenza is in the area
It appears that several dead geese have been found in the Whitby Harbour, and while that is bleak on its own, experts say this could be a sign of avian flu.
According to the CBC, Whitby Animal Services collected eight dead birds from the harbour this week. They have been taken for testing, and until the results are reported, the official cause of death remains unknown.
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Terrol Maciver, an Oshawa resident, said she noticed what seemed like two dozen dead geese and called Whitby Animal Services. “It was like a gravesite. It was heartbreaking, actually,” she said.
“I can’t say for certain what has caused this mortality event, but based on everything we know about it, we suspect it is related to an avian influenza outbreak,” Brian Stevens, a wildlife pathologist at the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, told the CBC.
City representatives in Brampton also suspect that waterfowl there have been infected by avian influenza.
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
