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The remarks of one resident in particular, Rob Cote, a frequent critic of city government, have drawn much attention since Cote spoke at a Feb. 25 meeting.
WARWICK — Two residents recently told City Council members that their neighbors’ illegal feeding of wildlife have drawn so many nuisance animals that killing them was necessary.
“So you probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you how many animals I’ve had to trap,” Cote told the City Council’s ordinance committee. “Just this summer alone, 32 skunks, 60 possums, 8 groundhogs, um what else, 4 raccoons and 200 squirrels.”
Cote talked about “euthanization” in detail. On Monday, weeks later, following circulation of his comments, and some sharp criticism from officials at the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, Cote asserted that he “never” euthanized any of the animals he had trapped.
Another Warwick resident at the same subcommittee meeting, Justin Paplauskas, of Montana Avenue, talked about killing rats drawn to his property by a neighbor’s sprinkling of birdseed.
“I’ve gassed them,” Paplauskas said. “I’ve trapped them. ... I’ve done a lot of things that you’re probably not supposed to do to try to get rid of them near housing.“On Tuesday, Paplauskas said he had attempted to gas rats on one occasion by putting a smoke bomb, the same type as sold in stores, into a rathole. The strategy didn’t work. He said he has killed rats with classic “snap traps” and the city has placed two poison traps in his yard. He said the DEM has not contacted him.
At the February meeting, Cote said he “was told” he could use exhaust from his car to euthanize a trapped skunk, but “I don’t think it’s my job to do that.”
When nuisance animals are destroying properties, he told the council, “somebody needs to do something about it.”
“So I love animals, but I’m put in a position where I have to euthanize these,” he said. “I don’t like doing it. But it has to be done. I just don’t have the amount of time to be transporting skunks to Exeter, which is in violation of the law.”
In a text Monday night, Cote told The Providence Journal that DEM investigators had visited his home earlier and that they understood his remarks. “They were clear by my statements that reported the problem and what I was told to do...which was NEVER done,” Cote said.
In the same text, Cote also identified Warwick Animal Control as the entity that had told him he could euthanize animals with exhaust from a vehicle.
Warwick’s police chief, Col. Rick J. Rathbun, said he’s aware of Cote’s various comments on the subject, which he finds inconsistent.
Rathbun said he is also comfortable with how the city’s animal control officers operate and he sees no reason “to question the integrity of personnel based on inconsistent statements.”
Both the DEM’s state veterinarian, Scott Marshall, and a DEM spokesman, Mike Healey, say that the guidance on the use of car exhaust, which Cote said was presented to him, is not acceptable.
“That’s inhumane killing,” Healey said.
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