{"id":588740,"date":"2026-04-07T20:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/588740\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T20:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:31:09","slug":"city-to-start-treating-ground-squirrels-in-nine-parks-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/588740\/","title":{"rendered":"City to start treating ground squirrels in nine parks \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city will begin using pesticides to control its ground squirrel population Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Two rodenticides will be used to treat athletic fields at nine parks in the city.<\/p>\n

The parks are: Beryl Watts Park\/Vince Leah Community Centre, Charleswood Place, Fairgrove Bay Park, Shaughnessy Park, St. James Memorial Sports Park, Theodore Niitzhotay Fontaine Park, Weston Memorial Community Centre, Woodsworth Park and Valour Community Centre \u2013 Clifton Site.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Rodenticides
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Rodenticides will be used to treat athletic fields at nine parks in the city to control the ground squirrel population. (Free Press files)<\/p>\n

The city said in a Tuesday news release it was forced to close some of the fields over the past few years because of ground squirrel damage. \u201cThe treatments we chose are used in most major Canadian cities. They pose limited risk to other animals and people,\u201d the release stated.<\/p>\n

The city said it would monitor the sites daily to ensure only ground squirrels, and not other animals, would be affected. It said it will promptly remove dead ground squirrels and post signage 24 hours before and after treatment.<\/p>\n

Animal rights groups have protested the decision by the province to allow the city to use Rozol RTU field rodent bait and RoCon concentrate rodenticide to treat ground squirrels.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

National animal law organization Animal Justice, the Winnipeg Humane Society and University of Manitoba biology professor James Hare are appealing the permit, asking the province to suspend it immediately, then revoke it, stating Rozol can cause very painful deaths for the animals and risks harming predators and pets, as well.<\/p>\n

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city will begin using pesticides to control its ground squirrel population Tuesday. Two rodenticides will be used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-588740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}