St. Thomas seeing massive spike in cases of distemper in skunks, raccoons

Local Journalism Initiative
·3 min read

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.

St. Thomas council voted to expand the city’s animal services to pick up sick or injured skunks and raccoons after Another Chance Wildlife Rescue appealed to the city for help due to widespread rates of distemper in the animals this year.

“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 which 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, although it is not transferable to humans.

The expansion of St. Thomas’ policy will enable the city’s animal services to pick up sick or injured skunks and raccoons on both public and private property, however, 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, “we always have distempered raccoons,” but the number of skunks infected with distemper skyrocketted 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 over 40 skunks in St. Thomas with the disease.

“We couldn't believe it,” Clarke said. “It was crazy.”

The city’s 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, and sometimes works with Clarke.

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 has 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.

London’s Animal Care Centre also has seen a higher volume of calls for skunks and around double for raccoons, said supervisor Jamie Round.

However, Round couldn't say how many of the increased number of calls were for distemper, but cases of the disease have "peaks and valleys."

“There's always an ebb and flow with the numbers,” Round said.

Wildlife organizations like 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.

The city’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.”

Brian Williams, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, London Free Press

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