
Disoriented, stumbling moose on the loose in Southern Georgian bay area
Residents and visitors in the Go Home Lake area have reported sightings of a moose behaving unusually, including walking near roadways and circling the area. In response to these concerns, the Township dispatched a bylaw officer to assess the situation on May 25, 2025. (Township of Georgian Bay)
A moose on the free has been spotted acting strangely, according to some residents of Southern Georgian Bay.
On Sunday around 3 p.m., locals observed a wild moose stumbling near the road and circling the area of Go Home Lake.
Worried for the animal's wellbeing, the Township of Georgian Bay dispatched a bylaw officer to assess the situation.
The bylaw officer determined that the moose appeared to be exhibiting signs of brainworm or moose sickness; a parasitic roundworm that can cause neurological symptoms in moose such as disorientation, stumbling, weakness, and even death.
The township is advising the public to exercise caution if they come in contact with this wild animal.
A representative from the township says do not approach, touch, or feed the moose. Report any sightings or unusual behavior to local authorities.
A bylaw officer returned to the area Monday morning but was unable to find the disoriented animal.
The Ministry of Natural Resources has not yet provided an update, but contact has been made to determine what further steps may be taken.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CBC
42 minutes ago
- CBC
Influenza now killing more Nova Scotians than COVID-19
For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Nova Scotians dying from influenza exceeds the number of COVID deaths. According to the province's latest respiratory watch report, 124 Nova Scotians have died from influenza during the 2024-25 respiratory season, which runs from Aug. 25, 2024, and will go up until Aug. 29, 2025. There have been 108 COVID deaths so far this season. Dr. Lisa Barrett, an infectious diseases doctor, said the fact there are fewer deaths due to COVID than influenza isn't any kind of positive development for the general population. "Some people have said, 'Oh, thank goodness, we're back to normal,'" she said. "And I'm like, 'Well, now we've got two viruses — not just one — that are still in the really important category for hospitalizations, bad lungs and deaths." Barrett said this year's global flu season was one of the worst of the last decade. "Yes, influenza has taken over from COVID, but they're both higher than we'd like them to be," she said. Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, said pandemics don't last forever and COVID-19 has become endemic — something that occurs regularly in an environment. He said it is not surprising to him that influenza deaths have topped COVID-19 deaths. "This is what we'd expect as we return to more of a normal respiratory virus season with a mix of viruses," he said. Where COVID-19 dominated so much discussion in past years, other respiratory illnesses — influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in particular — didn't get nearly as much attention. "For some people, we don't need to be as strongly afraid of COVID, but we need to be very respectful and take seriously all respiratory viruses," said Strang. He's encouraging people to practise the same measures that were preached during the peak days of the pandemic. That means washing hands, wearing masks where appropriate, staying home during an illness and getting vaccinated. But, on the latter point, fewer people are doing that. Data provided by the province shows that while 29 per cent of the overall population got their flu shots for the 2024-25 season, it was only 18 per cent for COVID-19. For the previous year's campaign, the percentages were 32.8 per cent and 22.8 per cent, respectively. "These vaccines are very effective against preventing ... severe illness and death," said Strang. "That's what we should be focusing on. How do we reduce that number of respiratory virus deaths? And it's through vaccines." Strang said the province will be expanding eligibility for the RSV vaccine this fall to include people 75 and above, regardless of where they live.


CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Visits up at Toronto's remaining consumption sites, 2 months after province forced 4 to close
Social Sharing Toronto's remaining supervised consumption sites say they've gotten busier in the two months since the province forced four sites to close — part of a changing picture of drug use in the city as Ontario continues its move toward an abstinence-based treatment model. "We are seeing more people, and people are changing their behaviour," said Bill Sinclair, CEO of the Neighbourhood Group, which runs the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site. Sinclair told CBC Toronto that that site has seen a 30 per cent uptick in visitors since April 1, when nine Ontario supervised drug consumption sites — four of them in Toronto — were forced to close under provincial legislation that prohibits sites from operating within 200 metres of a school or daycare. "People are using [drugs] differently," Sinclair said. "There's been a trend for a while of smoking rather than injecting, because of the perception that that is safer … people are doing their best to try to anticipate what a world might look like when the sites are not there." Fred Victor charity, which operates a supervised consumption site at Queen Street E. and Jarvis Street, has also clocked between 15 and 35 per cent more weekly visits. "It is stretching our staff to try to build the trusting relationships they've been trying to establish," said the charity's CEO Keith Hambly, adding that user numbers could go up even more after the summer months since some people are more inclined to use outdoors during warmer weather. Casey House, which runs a supervised consumption site for registered clients only, has seen a 25 per cent increase in its use, as well as more drug use outside of its facility — prompting it to extend its hours. Street Health on Dundas Street E. says it had 82 per cent more visits year-over-year in April, and 53 per cent more visits year-over-year in May, requiring more staff to be scheduled. Meanwhile, Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre says it hasn't seen a substantial increase in clientele post-closure, leading to concerns about the welfare of drug users that are no longer seeking out consumption sites. "We know some have used the Kensington site, and we are very concerned about what is happening for others we have not seen," wrote executive director Angela Robertson in an email. Leslieville 'a lot quieter,' say neighbours Meanwhile, people who live and work nearby what was one of the city's most scrutinized consumption sites say there's been a dramatic change since it closed. South Riverdale Community Health Centre made headlines in July 2023, when a woman named Karolina Huebner-Makurat was killed by a stray bullet while walking by. Since the consumption site closed, neighbour Derek Finkle — who was a vocal opponent of the site both before and after the shooting — says that the drug deals and open drug use he used to see on a regular basis has "virtually disappeared." "I've noticed there's nobody hanging around the fronts anymore. It's gotten a lot quieter," said Allen Malloy, owner of Daniel Jewellers on Queen Street E. "It's kind of like someone flipped a switch," said Nigel Fick, a co-owner of Culture Athletics, also on Queen. "When the site was open our business was significantly directly impacted," Fick said. "We had over $75,000 of theft and damages, and regular occurrences of dealing with theft and harassment inside the store." South Riverdale Community Health Centre declined a CBC News request for an interview. Ontario's new model As the city's drug users navigate the closure of consumption sites, there are still a number of unanswered questions as to how the new services that are available will impact drug use and overdose numbers. Of the 10 consumption sites mandated to close under the new provincial law, nine opted to take provincial money and transition into Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hubs, or HART hubs. The 10th, Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site, chose instead to take the Ford government to court over its legislation and is currently staying open thanks to a legal injunction and "fundraising like mad" to stay afloat, said Sinclair. The province said in a statement that all nine HART hubs were up and running by April 1, "ensuring the continuity of mental health support services" post-closure. WATCH | Health minister defends closures: Health minister defends decision to shut 5 safe drug consumption sites in Toronto 10 months ago Duration 6:46 Five supervised drug consumption sites are slated to close in Toronto after the provincial government announced a ban on such facilities near schools and child-care centres. CBC Metro Morning host Molly Thomas spoke to Health Minister Sylvia Jones about the changes. Advocates described "mass confusion" on the ground at the centres in early April, which received start-up funding from Ontario, but, according to the Ministry of Health, have yet to nail down finalized funding agreements with the government. Two months later, several of the HART hubs don't yet appear to have full slates of services up and running. At Toronto Public Health's HART hub, now running temporarily on the Esplanade, only one program of 10 is operational, with the rest planned to get underway this summer or beyond. Meanwhile, data suggests that overdoses are declining in Toronto and in Ontario more widely. According to data from Toronto Public Health, fatal and non-fatal opioid overdose calls are down in 2025 compared to the previous two years and continued to fall over the month of April. Hayley Thompson, the managing director of Toronto's Drug Tracking Service housed within St. Michael's Hospital, speculated in April that the decrease could be attributed to a decrease of the amount of fentanyl in the drug supply.


CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
This expectant mom's living in an outdoor shelter as YWCA Hamilton waits on federal funds to build housing
Four months into her pregnancy, Megan Ryan's bump is just visible — a constant reminder of what she's hoping for by the time she gives birth in November: Housing. The 34-year-old lives in Hamilton's outdoor shelter, which is designed for adults and pets only. Before that, she lived in a tent near Hamilton's rail trail for over a year, including last winter. She's afraid if she doesn't find a more permanent place to live, her newborn will be put into foster care. "That's what I'm terrified of," said Ryan. "And I don't know how I'll deal with that. I really don't." CBC Hamilton spoke with Ryan at a park near the outdoor shelter on Wednesday. She spoke openly about her life: her parents' struggles with alcoholism and how she began drinking at age 13, her first pregnancy at 16 and leaving home to live in a shelter while going to high school, experiences with mental illness and intimate partner violence, and having four more children and trying to keep them housed — renting mostly, but also couch surfing and living in hotel rooms and family shelters. In 2021, Ryan, her children and partner at the time were renting a home when he left, and she struggled to pay all the expenses on her own. "It came down to paying the bills or buying groceries, so I stopped paying the bills," she said. Limited services in Hamilton Ryan was evicted in December 2022 and her five kids went to live with other people — a gut-wrenching decision she and they have struggled with since, she said. "Two years, that's a long time," Ryan said. "I want my kids back. I've been trying." But in Hamilton, there are few housing options specifically for unhoused pregnant people and their children to live together until they can find permanent housing. The YWCA Hamilton has three beds at its transitional living program for women and non-binary individuals needing emergency reproductive care, but the site can't accommodate partners, pets or children. That means a person who's given birth can't return with the baby. "That's one of the leading issues at the end of pregnancy, with the person we're supporting asking where are they going next?" said Chelsea Kirkby, the YWCA's vice president of strategic initiatives and program development. That's where the Oakwood Project comes in, said CEO Medora Uppal. On Barton Street East, the proposed building would include 90 housing units for women, children and gender-diverse people who have experienced homelessness or violence. Some of the spots will be for women before and after their pregnancies, whether or not they bring a baby home or have other children in their care. Since August 2022, 126 pregnant, unhoused women — or social service providers on their behalf — have reached out to the YWCA for help, said Mary Vaccaro, a program co-ordinator. "A lot of the time it's invisible homelessness — they're staying at a sister's house that's untenable, unsafe and they're trying to get out of it," Vaccaro said as an example. When Uppal began envisioning the project in 2021, she said, she thought the process would be faster given the need. The YWCA found the land that December and bought it with a loan from the Hamilton Community Foundation, Uppal said. It also received $6.75 million from the city to pay for demolition, which took place this week. It's now waiting to hear back from the federal government if it will receive $34 million in funding to build. The City of Hamilton has committed $6.75 million in capital contributions to the YWCA's Oakwood Place project at 1067 Barton Street East, as part of the Affordable Housing Development Project Stream (the Project Stream) and Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF). Pre-development funding will cover early-stage activities such as demolition and site remediation. Construction funding will be released in phases to ensure the project's completion and occupancy. "We're really hopeful, but the news can't come quickly enough," Uppal said. "This is a long time coming and we are behind as a community, as a country, in building affordable housing." 'See that would be cool' Once the Oakwood Project is open, the YWCA will have more flexibility in helping people at any point of their reproductive or parenting journeys, said Kirkby. Along with housing, the site will offer other supports like medical care, child care, skills training, and employment and immigration services. "It's going to be really unique and something that's not offered in the city currently," said Kirkby. If the YWCA receives federal funding soon, it aims to start building by the end of the year. Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation, which decides which affordable, supportive and transitional housing projects receive federal funding, declined to comment on this specific application to protect confidentiality. As of the end of last year, the federal government's National Housing Strategy has committed about $15 billion to build, repair and support over 300,000 housing units for women and children across Canada. The Oakwood Project won't be ready for when Ryan gives birth, but she said she likes the idea, not only because it would give her and her newborn a place to live, but her other children, too. "See, that would be cool," she said. "That's what I would love to do." Instead, she will stay in the outdoor shelter for the time being. With the help of staff there, she's applying for more permanent housing, and while it may not be tailored exactly to her and her family's needs, she feels optimistic.