At 7:38 a.m. today, Ottawa Police officers responded to a call from the public about a large animal in the wooded area near the Scott Street overpass. On arrival, officers found a large elk pacing in the wooded area south of the overpass and 100 meters from the O-Train tracks.
Containment of the animal was established for its protection and to ensure public safety. Police officers, National Capital Commission staff and the City of Ottawa staff planned a course of action to manage the high level of risk factors posed by the elk and to tranquilize the 800 lb animal.
After several hours of containment and several attempts to safely tranquilize the animal, a decision was made at 2 p.m. to put the animal down. This decision was made after carefully assessing the risk factors relating the public, police and the animal. Prior to the decision, the animal was displaying elevated indicators of agitation and National Capital Commission (NCC) on scene officials advised that the risk to the public would be extremely high if the animal were to breach the established police containment area.
Again, throughout the day our goal was to protect the public and the animal. Unfortunately, that was not possible in this event.
No member of the Ottawa Police Service enjoys a task such as this and our officers, our partners at the City of Ottawa and the NCC worked for several hours in hopes of returning the elk to a safe place. That care for the animal’s welfare had to be balanced with public safety.