Following the second shooting death Saturday of an agitated moose within Ottawa's city boundaries, the provincial minister of natural resources says it is 'urgent' to develop a better way of dealing with stray wildlife, says Ottawa MPP Phil McNeely.

In an e-mail sent to CTV Ottawa, McNeely said he spoke with Natural Resources Minister Linda Jeffrey just hours after a yearling had to be killed near St. Laurent Boulevard when no contractors were available to tranquilize the moose.

"We have to have people available to handle the situation professionally when they're needed," he added in a separate interview with CTV Ottawa on Saturday.

Ministry officials will meet with the City of Ottawa on Thursday to discuss both that incident and another one on June 1, when two stray moose strayed into the suburb of Orleans and one of the pair was shot and killed after she jumped into a backyard.

City also readies for changes

There is no plan in place when a large animal like a moose appears in city limits. The city says no help currently comes from the ministry of natural resources, while the ministry has said Ottawa needs to hire a third party to deal with wildlife issues.

Media reports say the city used to have an arrangement with the National Capital Commission for situations like this, but the contract expired in 2008.

In light of this, Mayor Larry O'Brien told CTV Ottawa the city needs to change their current arrangements with animal-tranquilizer contractors, who were unable to help during the two moose deaths these past two weeks.

Ottawa uses two contractors who have no standing agreement with the city. The contractors are private citizens allowed to have the tranquilizers, and who also are used by police in situations like this. 

O'Brien said solutions could include hiring different contractors or hiring more contractors so that more people will be made available.

The mayor added it was "very tragic" that police had to kill the moose, but said public safety must come first.

Young moose agitated prior to its death

The buck moose was first spotted around 8:15 a.m. Saturday on Triole Street just east of downtown. When police arrived, they corraled it into a wooded, fenced area in between two residences.

As the moose grew more agitated, police said they feared for public safety given St. Laurent Boulevard -- a busy thoroughfare cutting through most of the east end -- was filled with Saturday-morning shoppers.

"The first thing that officers will try to do with large game animals, such as a moose, (is) they'll to try find a natural egress route and assist in coralling it to its natural habitat," said Ottawa Police Insp. Mark Ford.

But in this case, "It was in a great deal of distress and it was very agitated."

With the city unable to reach the two contractors on a weekend morning, a police sharpshooter took down the moose around 9:30 a.m. He fired six or seven shots. The moose, whose gender has not yet been identified, dropped to the ground shortly afterwards.

On June 1, one contractor unsuccessfully fired three tranquilizer darts at two moose who had strayed into an Orleans suburb. When the doe moose jumped into a backyard, police shot and killed her.

The other moose escaped into the woods; the one shot Saturday was smaller than the escapee, police said.

With a report from CTV Ottawa