From cows who jumped ship to Grumpy Cat’s film, here are some more Vancouver animal facts

Vancouver is one of the most nature-friendly major cities in the world, and as a relatively new large city, it has plenty of stories involving non-humans.

Here are a few times animals and people interacted in Vancouver. And by “few” we mean five.

Bounty for dead crows

Vancouver may be a fairly animal-friendly city now, but in its early days that wasn’t true in a lot of cases.

For example, in 1903 the provincial government authorized the City of Vancouver to offer a nickel per crow head due to the “voracious crows” in the city.

The goal was to kill 5,000 crows. City aldermen discussed the issue, including whether it should be limited to a few men, or to allow boys in on the bounty hunt.

They also discussed that poison seemed ineffective against the “almost human intelligence” of the birds. They also discussed the use of guns in the city to get the job done.

In 2026 dollars, the bounty would be around $1.50.

Raccoon caught, sent to zoo

While raccoons may look like little thieves, they are, in fact, not covered by human laws.

However, in 1924, a raccoon ended up in something of a prison after an incident in a tree near Hastings Park.

A raccoon was up a tree being chased by a couple of men.

It attempted to leap to freedom, but unfortunately it landed by the Vancouver police chief, who caught it.

Instead of setting it free somewhere more fitting of a raccoon, the chief took it to the zoo.

Albino orcas in local waters

In 1954 an albino orca was spotted in Burrard Inlet. It may have been the same one called Albino Alice, which was spotted in 1947 around Vancouver Island.

At the time, they weren’t very popular with locals, and Vancouver Province columnist Norman Hacking lit into the marine mammal, calling them savage and arguably the most dangerous mammal in BC.

In 1970 a different albino orca was caught off Vancouver Island and taken to Victoria’s Sealand. She was named Moby Dick, and died a couple of years later.

Cows overboard

In 1976, boaters in the Burrard Inlet had a strange sight after nine cows went overboard one night.

They were being moved from a ranch on Gambier Island to market on the mainland via a tugboat and barge, according to Grant Lawrence, who shared the story with VIA a few years ago.

As they passed by Lions Gate Bridge, the cows decided they had better plans and jumped ship.

The call went out to the surrounding area that cows had gone overboard, and a bovine rescue mission was thrown into action.

Two calves were pulled from the water, while the adults swam off in a different direction. A couple of cows were lassoed and guided to shore, a few others were caught by Third Beach, and cops were called to a beach in West Vancouver for two others. One cow was found swimming and given a life jacket to keep its head above water.

The last cow found alive was spotted by the Coast Guard the next day and brought home safe.

Two cows didn’t make it.

Grumpy Cat film

Most famous animals don’t travel too much, but Tardar Sauce, aka Grumpy Cat, was an exception. As one of the most famous cats of her time, she was taken around to a variety of events, and even spent some time in Metro Vancouver.

In 2014 Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever was shot in Coquitlam. Most of it was shot at Coquitlam Centre Mall