Ermines are tough critters to get rid of, says Calgary woman

A Calgary woman is at her wits end trying to get rid of an ermine weasel she spotted in her basement in Falconridge.

Kelly-Sue Chobotiuk says she saw the long, white critter scurry across her window sill last Thursday. She doesn't know how the animal got into her home, but a few days later she spotted some scat.

"I was a little freaked out at first, because I couldn't believe that I saw something like that," she said.

Chobotiuk is worried about her pet rabbit because weasles are known to hunt them.

"When I talked to the wildlife people they all said to me, 'Oh yeah, it will hunt and kill your rabbit,'" she said. "So for the first few nights I slept in the living room with my rabbit."

But Chobotiuk hasn't had any luck finding someone to trap it after calling the city's 311 line, the Calgary Humane Society and the wildlife hotline.

"So it's been one call after the other and then people said, 'Well, there are exterminators that will catch and release,'" she said. "I think I've phoned five and the sixth one I'm still waiting on. So they just keep passing the buck — 'phone this person, phone this person' — and I keep hearing over and over we've never heard of that before."

Ken Cheek with Calgary Humane Wildlife Control agrees.

"This is the the first one I've ever heard of," he said. "It could have come in through an open window, a basement window or a door."

Chobotiuk says she's not even sure if the animal is still in her house. But if it is, she hopes to catch it in a trap and release it back into the wild.