Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Crows are being given naloxone as B.C.'s toxic drug crisis spreads

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Crows are being given naloxone as B.C.'s toxic drug crisis spreads · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: An animal welfare group in Prince George, British Columbia, has
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: been giving life-saving naloxone, or Narcan, to crows found unconscious
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in the street. Volunteers think these birds have ingested toxic
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: drugs that were left outdoors. The Crow Rescue Society has
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: posted videos online showing their volunteers administering naloxone to the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: unresponsive crows through the nostrils on the beaks of the birds.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Within hours, birds are back up on their feet and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: eventually are released. Now, naloxone normally given to Drug users
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: who have been poisoned by opioids, the society says it's
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: seen a sharp increase in the number of crows needing
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: treatment this year. So the toxic drug crisis has had
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a huge impact, of course, on people across the country,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and that includes in British Columbia. And now we're seeing
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the impact widen as drugs and drug paraphernalia increase. are
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: left in various parts of various cities. Our next guest
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: is part of the group behind these rescues. Mandy Calvert
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: is the vice president of Good Cause Crow Rescue Society. Mandy,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us. Describe for us
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: what you're seeing in Prince George.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, across the country right now, the opioid crisis
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: is out of hand. But what we're seeing is the crows,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: they're where the food is. And I mean, There's a
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: lot of food downtown. A lot of times what isn't
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: eaten in the food banks is given to the crows.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: But while they're foraging for food, they're also coming across
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: the garbage, the leftover bags and the foils. And while
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: they're searching for food, they're coming in contact with trace amounts.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: And that's all it takes.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: The opioid crisis, as you point out, is much wider
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: than just Prince George. It certainly affects the city that
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I'm in, Vancouver. It's a city I walk around a
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: lot in. And I haven't seen this. I mean, maybe
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I'm missing it, but I haven't seen the impact on
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: animals here. What made you jump into action in Prince George?
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I think what happened was because more and more people
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: are hearing about our rescue, they're noticing more. They're looking more.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: They're contacting us more. And we've started keeping track.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: We didn't know what was happening at first. It was
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: actually a pigeon.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Rescue in Vancouver that had said that they were already
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Narcanning pigeons.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Keep going.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: We talked to our vet to see if that was
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: a possible option to try because we didn't know what
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: else to do.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: And so we're just looking at video now. And so naloxone,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the kind of two main ways, I think, to administer it.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: There are people, a lot of people actually in Vancouver
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: who carry around like a way to inject naloxone into
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: somebody who's been poisoned by an opioid. But then there
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: are nasal drops and it is the nasal drops that
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: you're administering to these crows. I'm sure there are people
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: who are watching and saying, why bother? Why do this?
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: They're living creatures, you know, just like everything. They don't
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: deserve to suffer. I mean, people may not like crows.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: We do. Other people do. And they deserve to be
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: treated better. They are beneficial.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: They do show us changes in our environment and living.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: They do help clean up carrion. I mean, we don't
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: have vultures here. Vultures actually help prevent the spread of disease.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Crows do very much the same here.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: The other thing, of course, is what all of this
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: is revealing is the fact that naloxone clearly is accessible
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: to crows, which means they're accessible to other animals. And frankly,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: anyone who's going to the places where the crows are
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: getting it, something you must have thought about.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: So it was an interview of an unhoused person. had
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: stated that they'd had to give Narconon to their dog.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: And that was where we kind of went, what is
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: going on? So that's when I looked into it further
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: with the other rescues to find out more about whether
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: it was safe.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: And there's a lot of communities or a lot.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Of resources around town where people can access it for
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: free and receive training on how to administer it. Some
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: of these resources have actually given us their expired supply
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: because they're not allowed to use it on humans. And
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: so it's worked out really well for us and for them.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: It also helps reduce some of the waste.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: This opioid crisis has killed so many people in the
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: last few years. And it's sad and interesting to see
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: kind of the widening impact of how much of these
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: drugs are around. Mandy Calvert is the Vice President of
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the Good Cause, that's C-A-W-S, Crow Rescue Society. Thanks for
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: speaking with us.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Thank you.