Is the NS SPCA Imploding, or What?

The NS SPCA has been in the news in the last couple weeks, and it seems like it's been there for not a good reason.

At the end of June 9 out of 11 members of the Yarmouth SPCA's Board suddenly resigned - because they disagreed with the direction that the Provincial Board of the SPCA was trying to take them - and they were saying things like they didn't agree with the new "governance model" that was being presented to them, that money they raised at their own branch was going to have be sent to Provincial - and then sent back to them before it could be spent - basically that the Provincial Board has become a very tough task master and very onerous and on their backs all the time.

At the same time - the Provincial Board has suspended the president of the Pictou Branch -

Ms. Garland seems to have the same problem as the folks in Yarmouth - but she's got a couple extra complaints about what Provincial is trying to impose upon her shelter in Pictou - like oh my dog - horror of horrors! Continuing to adopt out animals over the holidays!

"She said they asked them to change adoption papers, requested the shelter’s hours of operation be extended and are dictating how things are run at the shelter.

Garland said the Pictou County shelter was asked to renovate its building after an audit was conducted, and is doing so now. They have been asked to open on Good Friday and near Christmas for adoptions.

“That is not the day to adopt animals,” said Garland. “It’s a last-minute thought for people to get an animal for Easter and it comes back the next week."

In April when I went to the SPCA's AGM - I knew something was up. When the Executive Director was talking about what their plans were for the coming year - she was talking about what they were going to be doing with the different branches around the province - and it really sounded to me that what she was planning on doing - (and let's face it - I'm going to use the term "she" from now on - because it's Kristen Williams who runs the NS SPCA now, and not the Provincial Board or anyone else, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that - because I personally think that what's going in, for the most part is fabulous) - was to strip all the branches of any meaningful power that they had - they were going to lose any voting power that they had at Provincial Board meetings almost immediately after the AGM - that was the only thing members voted on at the AGM - an "endorsement to reduce board size and composition" - as well as "an edorsement to accept new directors between elections" - thereby nullifying the reaons for ever having an AGM or voting members in one fell swoop.

So what is happening in the NS SPCA? Is it good, or is it bad?

First I will say what I think is happening. The person who is the Executive Director - Kristin Williams, who is a super brilliant individual - is trying to take the NS SPCA into the 21st century.

She is trying to build the organization into one that she envisions it - if you go and read their Strategic Plan for 2011 - 2013 - it's all there.

Kristin has not hidden anything that she wants to do.

She has many goals that are between 3 and 5 years that include strengthening and changing the governence of the branches of the SPCA across the province;
- To making Nova Scotia a no-kill province through the development of pet retention programs, trap-neuter release, low cost spay-neuter, etc.

It's a 3 page document and well worth the read - it's at http://www.spcans.ca/about/documents/StrategicPlan2011.pdf and you should go check it out - especially page 3 where she talks about the "No Kill Equation" and she says that part of it is -

10. Pro-active owner redemptions - One of the most overlooked areas for reducing killing in most animal control shelters are lost animal reclaims. Shifting from a passive to a more proactive approach has proven to have a significant impact on lifesaving and allow shelters to return a large percentage of lost animals to their families.

When Bill Bruce came here to talk about animal control that was one of the things that blew me away about his city - the fact that they go so far to reunite lost pets with their owners - they consider animals LOST, not STRAY.

So why is everyone at the branch level so pissed off with the Provincial branch? It's about control - the Provincial branch is taking away control - and I actually think that you are going to see the district boards around the province disappearing - they are definitely not going to have a seat on the Provincial board in the near future I don't think.

Also - the SPCA is getting out of the Animal Control game as well, which I think is fabulous - I have said tons of times that animal control should be a function of the municipality or town - and never contracted out - not to an SPCA, or a private company - so I am blissfully happy that finally the SPCA agrees with me - it has been brought up at the last 2 SPCA board meetings. So we'll see what happens with that.

So long story short - can a bunch of pencil pushers in Halifax run a charity all across Nova Scotia?

Today they put out a press release asking for volunteers to help run the SPCA down in Yarmouth. At the end of the day they still need bodies on the ground to run the organization.

My biggest fear is that all of these reforms, all of these paradigm changes are being handled and managed by one fantasmagoric dynamo of one person - Kristin Williams - and there is no one else on earth like her.

What if some company in Ontario sees what she's doing here and offers her a $150,000 job starting in 2 weeks? How could she refuse that?

And where would that leave the NS SPCA? Who could possibly fill the shoes that she's been wearing and that she created?

I am quite sure that the organization would crumble almost immediaitely. That is my worry. I hope it doesn't happen.

I don't know that there's anyone in Nova Scotia who understands the "Carver Model" who'd be willing to fill her shoes and take the shit, and implement what needs to be done, and do 50 other tasks in a day - and have 20 other fires going.

So is the NS SPCA imploding? Not if everybody would follow the company line.

But when you have volunteers who've been there for 28 years and think they have everything figured out - that is a really hard objection to overcome. I don't envy anyone that.

But I do love that there is someone trying to move the NS SPCA organiztion into the 21st century - their strategic plan is a thing of beauty, the fact that Kristin gets out there and goes and speaks to the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities, and the different town's Councils about their bylaws - and how the SPCA can help them - and that they've realize that their organization was created to shelter animals, not impound them - is all amazing.

But that's airy-fairy - and you have the staff and volunteers who are collecting bottles, having barbecues to raise $50 - so that the kittens they're fostering can get their vaccinations - and they don't understand why that money has to take such a long trip.

So I guess we'll see how it all shakes out in the wash. I hope it's the animals who win out in the end.

Don't be hatin'

Today was the Summit for Urban Animal Strategies in Halifax

Well today, I burned away some more people's tax money - and took a vacation day from my job that I've been gainfully employed in for more than 19 years (which means that I get 25 vacation days a year) - and went to the "Atlantic Regional Summit for Urban Animal Strategies" that was being held in Halifax.

I went to the Atlantic Regional Summit last year too - and that was a lot of fun, so I figured I'd go this year too - and today was equally interesting, so I'm glad I went. Today's topic was cats - so I was half-preparing for a complete snooze-fest, but I was surprised, I was involved from beginning to end - even though we didn't talk about dogs at all - I still took away ideas that relate to topics that I'm personally interested in - licencing, legislation, homelessness, euthaization, how to get bureaucrats to do their jobs, and how to also get them to listen to what the populace wants them to do - except today was from the cat's viewpoint.

So for those of you who are also interested in this kind of stuff - here are some of the notes that I took today that I thought were worth remembering.

What we were talking about in the morning was a big survey that some guy did to cat owners in Canada - asking them general questions about cat ownership and stuff - and the survey came up with some conclusions - and in the conversations this morning the idea came up that animal shelters and rescues really have not done a very good job of showing the public what a good value that animals adopted from rescues are.

A lot of the public sees animals at SPCA's and pounds as being inferior animals - when in fact a lot of the time you get an animal that comes to you - spayed or neutered, up to date on it's shots, microchipped, a little bit of training - and it's even been matched to your lifestyle if the shelter has an adoption coordinator.

All for under $200 - what pet store or back yard breeder is going to do that for you? Shelters need to capitalize on that - and show the public the value for the money they're spending - because in the surveys of cat owners - that fact showed glaringly.

Last year I also talked about this fact - the fact that most pet owners get most of their pet care information from their veterinarians - this year the statistic they quoted was 45-71% of pet owners. That scares me - because we all know how backwards a lot of vets thinking is when it comes to vaccinations and what to feed your pets - and how to train your dog even! We in the humane community - but also the CKC, and the bsl people - we all need to work together - because the pet owning population - in order to understand and become aware of the problems of back yard breeders and puppy mills - needs to hear the same information - from all of our communities - in that way by telling the same stories and explaining things the same way - the breeding facilities that are truly puppy mills can be shut down.

One veterinarian from Hamilton spoke about what her city did - and they launched a program called "year of the cat" - which is going to go national in 2011 - and they had one slogan which I thought was hilarious - "cats don't wear condoms". That's a great line.

In the afternoon - Bill Bruce from Calgary gave a presentation about cats and his city.

I have seen Bill Bruce now at least 3 times. He is of course awesome. Although I have to say that I don't know if I would actually want to live in Calgary, because if you sneeze sideways, I think that's a bylaw infraction and you can be fined for that. I'm just kidding about that one - but it is for sure a bylaw infraction to let your dog hang their head out the car door window - and if your dog is deemed vicious you have to put a huge sign on the outside of your house of a growling drooling killer looking dog. If you've never seen him in action you can see him in a video - here -

Bill Bruce also came to Halifax back in 2007 to meet with HRM and Animal Control to give them some pointers on how to run their department - he also met with the public and gave a presentation - I don't know how successful he was when he met with Animal Control department - based on how the department seems to be run now, I'd say they didn't take too much of his advice. I wrote a blog post about his presentation to the public if you care to go back and read it - you can find that post here -

Bill Bruce's talk today was good too - he said that animals end up in shelters not because of pet overpopulation, and not because of the animal's fault - but because a human relationship failed the pet.

He desribed something really neat that happens in Calgary with their feral cat population - because they have a coaltion between the Animal Services Department, their Humane Society, a local shelter, and a tnr society who does all the tnr stuff for the city - every feral cat in the city that gets picked up to be trapped neutered and returned - gets microchipped - with the address and name of the tnr group - so every feral cat in Calgary is "owned" by the feral cat society - and only they know the actual colony location of each feral cat - so if a cat gets picked up - and it's already been spayed/neutered and returned - Animal Services returns it to the tnr society to return it to it's original colony.

I thought that was just the neatest idea - it solves so many problems - it solves the problem of the cat that's been in somebody's back yard for the last 3 years that the person says doesn't actually "belong" to them - and it keeps having kittens and what're they going to do about it - well now it belongs to the tnr society.

Every dog and cat that's adopted through Animal Services gets a free licences for the first 6 months - now THAT is a good way to increase compliance with licencing - you've already got them in the system. I wonder - that would be a great thing for Homeward Bound to start up, don't you think? Seeing as how they seem to have so much closer ties to the city than the SPCA did?

Now this is probably going to be the neatest thing you've ever seen. When Calgary Animal Services picks up a stray cat - they note where they pick up that fan-damned cat - which neighbourhood they got it from, they take a picture of that cat - and then they mail out a card like this one - to ALL the houses in that neighbourhood saying - IS THIS YOUR CAT?

Can you believe that? I wrote a post a couple months ago and I called that post "Think lost, not stray" - I think Bill Bruce has been to some of the same conferences I've been to. I think he has.

Anyway, that's enough bullshit for tonight.

Here's a picture of the Halifax Harbour taken with my beautiful Iphone and one of the wonderful apps I downloaded that makes photos look all fuzzy and wonderful. I love my iphone.

And since we were talking about cats - here's a photo of my cat Whisky on my newly painted back deck - also taken with my Iphone and that nice app - this was taken on the weekend though.

The real difference between Calgary and Halifax

This is a snapshot of where some of Calgary's off leash spaces are - there are 138 of them covering more than 1,275 hectares.


I got an email in the last couple of days because the The HRM Off Leash Parks Strategy Committee will be hosting a neighbourhood meeting between local residents, ball team officials and off leash proponents to meet and discuss off leash issues at the Robert Drive Ball Diamond over in Dartmouth on September 23rd.



That ball diamond had not been being used as a ball diamond so had been deemed usable as an off leash space last year during the off leash strategy "testing" phase - and one thing that set this spot apart from every other legal off leash space in the HRM is that this spot was completely fenced in - and word got out about that fact, so this became quite a popular spot for dog owners who wanted to exercise their dogs off leash but perhaps weren't quite sure that they had a perfect recall for their dog, or didn't want to have to interact with bicyclists and joggers and things like that - so the park got a lot of use - and in the spring - the turf was pretty much all chewed up, and guess what happened?

The City closed the park down because they said that dog owners were abusing the park, there had been complaints and ONE ball team had signed up to use the park. I talked about the facts in a post at http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-many-complaints-does-it-take-to.html

So in other words - when tax paying dog owners in the Halifax Regional Municipality find something that actually works for them - the city closes it down.

It's interesting, because right now the city of Calgary is reviewing their own offleash strategy - and in October 2009 they'll be presenting their final report to their City Council - they talked to, get this - THOUSANDS OF DOG OWNERS, asking they wanted for their tax dollars and licencing fees. Wow. It was the most comprehensive dog ownership survey in history.

As a result of this study - Bill Bruce will be asking for MORE OFF-LEASH PARKS - NOT LESS. (Note here - I am quoting from a newspaper article from the Calgary Sun that I will be putting at the end of this post).

And what's really amazing is - parks that are overused - are a SIGN THAT MORE OFF LEASH PARKS ARE NEEDED IN THAT AREA - not that dog owners are abusing their privileges.... can you imagine! Here's a quote from the Calgary Sun article that's at the end of this post - "Nora Tuckey, president of the Southland Natural Park Society, is hopeful the call for new dog parks will finally be heard. "It's been badly needed for many years, especially to relieve the pressure at places like Southland," she said. "It's been pounded into the dirt through overuse." "

So to me, it's quite glaring what the real difference is between Calgary Alberta and Halifax Nova Scotia when you compare our municipal governments attitudes to it's tax paying dog owners - one government wants to work with, cultivate good relationships, make good use of space, realizes that the dogs are NOT going away - and neither are their owners, and are an income stream that could become lucrative if they worked it correctly in a positive way - and another municipal government obviously thinks of dogs and their owners as something that is a waste of time, does nothing but spoil the environment, every owner is bad and should be lucky for what they DO have, only wants the City to spend money they don't have, and generally just wants to create an adversarial relationship so that maybe the tax paying dog owners will go away and all the dogs will die of old age and the owners will be so devastated they won't replace the dogs and the city won't have any more of those awful things that just get fleas, shit and piss everywhere anyway. Yuck.

So anyway, if you're interested in off leash spaces - or at least the Robert Drive Park off leash space - there's going to be a meeting to talk about the possibility of maybe reopening it - it was supposed to be reopened in September, but I guess that's not happening since the meeting is September 23rd, and the meeting is about "the possibility of reopening it" - I love Halifax's bureaucrats. You should show up at the meeting.

Thank dog Halifax is dog friendly DESPITE City Hall. Just go out and live your life - that's what I do, and that's what 1000's of other dog owners do. And it's pretty good. No one bothers you. Because do you know what? Just about everyone loves dogs - and I'd say that anyone reading this blog has good dogs that are lovely to be around, so don't worry. It's all good.

Here's the meetin info - The HRM Off Leash Parks Strategy Committee will be hosting a neighbourhood meeting on Wednesday, September 23 from 7:00-9:00 pm at the East Dartmouth Community Centre, 50 Caledonia Road to discuss the reopening of the off leash field at Robert Drive. This will be an opportunity for local residents, ball team officials and off leash proponents to meet and discuss off leash issues at the Robert Drive Ball Diamond.

Here's the article from the Calgary Sun

Dogged demands
Survey shows Calgarians calling for more off-leash areas

An off-leash park within walking distance of every home -- such is the utopian demand of those sharing their home with canis familiaris, better known as the family dog. Whether that shaggy Shangri-La vision of a dog park for every community is realized will ultimately be up to Calgary's aldermen -- but the people have spoken, and a lot more room for Rover and Rex is what the people want.

"We have a good database to take before city council, to say 'this is what the public thinks, and this is what they want.' And it's pretty safe to say what they want is more parks," said Bill Bruce, head of Animal Control and the city's chief bylaw officer.

A "pretty good database" is an understatement, after the bylaw department spent the last year talking to thousands of dog owners, asking what they want for their tax dollars and licensing fees.

And so, new off-leash parks for the Calgary's 100,000-plus dogs will top the plan when it's presented to city council in October. That's when the full results of the most comprehensive dog-ownership survey in history will be released to aldermen. Council ordered the study last year, after concerns were raised about overcrowded dog parks and the management of existing sites.

The final report is still being compiled, but the headline to follow can easily be drafted weeks in advance: Fur Flies at City Council. It's bound to be a contentious subject. Surplus land is in short supply in Calgary, yet 100,000 voters are pretty hard to ignore.

Having reviewed thousands of responses to the still-ongoing study -- there were nearly 5,000 when summer began -- Bruce said dog owners have made their desires clear.

As a result, he'll be asking city council for more off-leash parks.

"More parks would be my hope -- the goal is to end up with more," said Bruce.

"We absolutely will not end up with less."

Though he'll be up against the space demands of sports groups and developers, Bruce said overcrowding in large parks like Southland makes for a compelling argument.

One solution might be adding smaller, neighbourhood parks to take the pressure off the big off-leash zones.

Bruce said owners would rather take Fido for walks without a car ride first.

"People want the parks closer, so they don't have to drive so far, and that makes sense for environmental reasons," he said.

The remaining requests are fairly basic, says Bruce, including fences for safety, and more garbage bins.

And, said Bruce, dog owners want the parks to themselves, instead of sharing with cyclists and other humans.

"They want a segregation between dogs and other uses, because they feel mixed use is a recipe for disaster," he said.

Along with surveying the mutt-owning masses, the bylaw office mapped the concentration of dogs in Calgary.

The deep south is by far the most canine-crowded end of Calgary -- yet the only sizeable dog park is Southland, beside the Deerfoot.

Ald. Linda Fox-Mellway, whose ward covers the deep south, says she needs to see the full report before committing to new off-leash parks.

"I know there are a lot of dogs in the south, but I have to see the report first."

The plan for new off-leash parks already has at least one supporter on council. Ald. Ric McIver, whose ward contains Southland, said it was an issue he raised in early 2008.

"Council wasn't ready to act then, so maybe when they're armed with this new information, they'll be ready to add off-leash areas," he said.

McIver wants the city to include off-leash areas in the blueprint for every new community, much like sports fields and playgrounds are planned now.

Nora Tuckey, president of the Southland Natural Park Society, is hopeful the call for new dog parks will finally be heard.

"It's been badly needed for many years, especially to relieve the pressure at places like Southland," she said.

"It's been pounded into the dirt through overuse."

No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas + some neat links

Today I bought my plane ticket, booked my hotel, and bought a ticket to the No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas going on October 23 - 25, 2009 - so my Nathan Winograd stalking is going to be able to be continued for a little while longer.

I've got the sessions picked out already that I want to go to - and there's all kinds of other spectactular people going there to be speakers - along with people from the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary as well - there's one session called "DogTown's Secret Sauce: Training Tips and Personal Recipes for Problem Dogs from DogTown Trainers" that sounds really neat - and Bill Bruce from Calgary is going to be there too.

He came to Halifax a couple years ago, and I've heard him speak a couple of times, so I'm sure he's going to give a great talk there too.

I'm going down a couple days early so that I can have enough energy for the 3 days - and see what Las Vegas is like - that is going to be amazing. I cannot wait! I can't believe it's 2 whole months away!

I have wanted to go to this conference for years - and since this is the 25th anniversary of Best Friends - this year is going to be extra fantabulous - so if there was any year I was going to go - this year had to be the year. So I am super happy that I'm getting to go. The 10 hour flight though - I'm not so happy about - but I'll deal with that at the moment the airplane takes off! But that's why I'm going down early - so that I'll be over the jet lag by the time the conference starts...

When I was looking at the conference speakers one of the people's titles sounded interesting - it was "Susan Daffron, Founder, National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals" - and I'd never heard of the organization before, so I googled it and went to their website - and it looks like a neat organization - and one of their "vendor members" is a company called "Walk your dog with love" - and he's got a page on his website with little video clips of people who've bought his front walking harness - and there's some beautiful clips there because 3 of the people's video clips were using prong collars - but this guys harness worked SO MUCH BETTER - that they were going to use his device instead of the prong collar - now THAT'S a product I can get behind! He also has a program that is a money maker for shelters where all profits from his harness goes to the shelter that sells them - so "Walk your dog with love" - is a great product all around.


I was also sent a link to a really neat Facebook group - it's called "The Underdog Club" - and its out of Montreal - and they've got some fantastic advertising posters for an event that's happening in September.


This is what it says about "The Underdog Club" -"THE UNDERDOG CLUB is a private organization dedicated to finding special owners for hard to place dogs. Whether old, ugly or simply unpopular, these dogs can’t compete with purebreds or puppies and often go unnoticed at local shelters. The members of the club are not for most, which is what makes the Club so exclusive. And while most will want nothing to do with such undesirable characters, a small handful of people will see something that the others have missed. Welcome to the underdog club."


And the event they're putting on in September is as follows: When most people hear the words “art” and “dog,” the iconic image of the furry friends playing poker might come to mind. A local Montreal not-for-profit organization is putting a new spin on canine culture this September by organizing one the city’s first-ever animal adoption art galleries. From September 11-27, 2009, the Underdog Club, an organization spearheaded to help find homes for hard-to-place homeless dogs, is hosting the Underdog Club Gallery at 4922 Sherbrooke Street West.


The Underdog Club Gallery will be an interactive experience designed to educate Montrealers about animal abandonment, raise funds for local animal rescue organizations and help hard-to-place dogs find homes. The Gallery will feature a collection of dogs both in pictures and in person for people to greet, play with, and, hopefully, adopt. The dogs selected for the gallery are the “Underdogs” - ­ the older, uglier, less-popular animals that are overlooked day after day in local shelters.

A really neat Google website & Some more local stuff coming up

I just discovered the neatest google website - it's a pedometer thingee where you can figure out the distance of where you're walking - for what use? Who cares! It's neat! It's at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ - and then in the "jump to" box you can type in the city you're in and then go from there - you double click on the street you want to start out on and then double click on each point - and it'll click on the distance. It's really neat.

Did you know that Deepak Chopra is coming to Halifax? I just found out yesterday. I bought my ticket as soon as I found out. He's going to be at the Metro Centre on April 22nd. I can't wait. As a mentally challenged person of a certain age, I've perused a few of his books - so it behooves me to go to see him if he's coming to town - like other people have to go see Neil Young when he comes to town. So if you are of a similar ilk - and you didn't hear about it yet - here's your warning.

There's another animal law conference - this time up in Montreal - this one sounds really serious and brainy. It's May 21st and 22nd - and here's their spiel about it -

The purpose of this conference, the first of its kind in Canada, is to bring together a group of researchers and students to explore the bases for a new understanding of “animal law” and its determinants. The conference will provide a platform for interdisciplinary exchanges between Canadian and international researchers and practitioners in the field who can suggest a relevant or innovative outlook on the legal and moral treatment of animals. Overall, the goal is to review the behaviours that human beings exhibit towards the animal species.

Although mainly a scientific and legal undertaking, the conference is open to researchers from other disciplines—biology, ecology, philosophy and veterinary medicine, for example—who are concerned with the use and exploitation of animals by human beings as well as sources of animal sufferings they would like to see stopped or reduced.

It costs between $85 - $205 to go to the conference, depending on whether you're a student or a person off the street - the website is at http://www.grida.uqam.ca/EN/

If you're interested in learning how to teach your dog how to relax - Jackie McGowan - who also teaches people how to dance with their dogs (which is pretty neat) - is giving a one day session on showing people how to get their dogs to relax -

Location: Days Inn - 20 Highfield Park Drive
Time: 9:00am - 4:00pm
Cost: $120.00

You can learn more about it on her website at Fanickally Parson Jack Russell Terriers

If you've got 2 hours to kill - On March 25th - Bill Bruce - "Bylaw Bill" of Calgary, Alberta - gave an amazing 2 hour talk in Santa Barbara California about his system of animal control and what he's done in his city. I was enraptured for the whole 2 hours - Santa Barbara put the 2 hour video on their website - it really is unbelievable in it's beauty the things he talks about - it's all good. You can go watch it by clicking HHEERREE.

And this is going to be just TOO incredibly cute! Pug Pals of the HRM is putting on an Easter Egg Hunt at Point Pleasant Park on April 12th - at Fort Ogilvie in particular. This is going to be just too much! Can you imagine 40 pugs all dressed up in easter outfits? I am going to have to go there with Buttercup and take some photos - I'll have to put one of Buttercup's party dresses on her. I cannot wait. This is what small dog ownership is all about. Love. It is open to ALL breeds - so even if you don't own a pug - if you've got $12 and a easter party attitude - come to the party. It's going to be a hoot. There's a facebook event if you want to check it out - here -

Nathan Winograd versus Bill Bruce

I have been rereading parts of Redemption - Nathan Winograd's (my hero) book about the myth of pet overpopulation, and there is a section that I'm currently reading that just about knocked my socks off.

It's in the section where he talks about the beginnings of the San Francisco SPCA's rebirth and when they started implementing changes there and how they openly defied conventional shelter practices. He said about Richard Avanzino:

Instead of citations, he was providing incentives. Instead of threats, he was giving people opportunities. The SPCA was making it easy for th public to do the right thing, and in the process he was making the shelter more proactive and accountable...And the results - lower impounds, less killing, and more adoptions - were nothing short of revolutionary."

When I read that paragraph yesterday I was walking down the street and all of the sudden I stopped reading and said out loud "OH MY GOD!" - I hope there wasn't anyone standing around me, because I probably looked like a fool. That paragraph is just so amazing! Instead of citations they gave people opportunities.

That is what really bothers me about Calgary. The Calgary dog bylaw has 3 pages of fines - if you are at a dog park and your dog is more than 100 feet away from you - you WILL be fined for that. If your dog is deemed vicious, you have to post a sign at every entrance to your home and property. If your dog hangs his head out of the window of your car - you WILL be fined for that. It all just seems TOO punitive for me. If I lived in Calgary - I don't know if I'd ever take the dogs out, because I'd be doing nothing but getting fined all the time, because it sounds like - if it's a fun thing to do - you're going to get a fine for it.

So I wonder what Nathan Winograd thinks about Bill Bruce - or "bylaw Bill" as he likes to call himself. I just wonder....

Nathan also thinks it is a very bad idea for SPCA's to hold animal control contracts. In the same chapter he says about the San Francisco SPCA:

"Until then, virtually every major city had an SPCA or humane society that contracted for animal control services, and these shelters had become dependent on the revenue streams provided by animal control contracts, although in most cases they did not provide the level of funding needed to perform the services mandated. As a result, these agencies' proviate fundraising efforts, which brought in revenue above and beyond contractual payments from cities and towns for animal control services were not being used to maximize life saving. Instead, they were being spent performing animal control enforcement. Animal lovers who donated to their local shelter were inadvertently paying officers to write citations, rather than fund expanding adoption services."

That is interesting, eh? I bet a lot of us never thought about that before. That our fundraising efforts for SPCA's might be going to fund animal control contracts that don't actually pay enough to cover the contract itself. That is an excellent point - and an excellent reason why an SPCA shouldn't be killing animals for the city - they should be sheltering and saving animals only....

Avanzino goes on to declare that the San Francisco SPCA would do just that - they wouldn't renew the SPCA's contract with the city - "his SPCA would provide oversight to make sure thatkilling was done as humanely as possible, while using it resources and advocacy efforts to recue is as much as possible" - and -

"Consequently the "animal control" functions Avanzino saw asd antithetical to the mission of an organization dedicated to advocacy on behalf of animals - impoundment of vicious animals and city ordinance enforcement (including ticketing for dog licence violations, leash laws, and "pooper scooper" laws - would go back to the city."

Nathan goes on to say that "By 1993 Avanzino's SPCA was not only saving more lives than ever before, it was gaining huge public support....thanks to San Francisco's pet-loving public, which no longer felt it was subsidizing the killing of pets if it supported the San Francisco SPCA".

Isn't that amazing? No wonder everyone who reads Nathan Winograd thinks he is just the bees knees. Everyone should go out and buy his book today. Every page is just as good as this post. I can't wait until May, 2009 when I am going to get to meet him.

Yesterday's meeting with the mayor

A very brave lady by the name of Linda had contacted Mayor Peter Kelly a few weeks ago because she'd been so upset by Brindi's story, and somehow she was able to set up a meeting with him to talk about the badly written A300 bylaw. She was told she wasn't allowed to talk about Brindi's case though - only about bylaw A300, and she knew she didn't want to go alone - so she contacted a couple people to go with her, and I was one of them. She also contacted Marc Boutilier, and Francesca Rogier - and we all went yesterday and talked to Mayor Peter Kelly about why we think bylaw A300 is bad and what we think should be changed.

Marc did most of the talking - and we were all thankful for that! He did an awesome job, that's for sure - he said he's got a lot of politician's in his family, and I'd say that there must be something in their blood - because he should follow in his "family business".

I had put together a whole paper package to give to the mayor, and made extra copies for him to pass along to Robin McNeil - the staff sargeant who actually wrote the bylaw, and Andrea MacDonald, the manager of Animal Control - and it was basically what our proposal was - and model bylaws from other places in Canada that we thought had sections that Halifax could use instead of the section that's currently in the bylaw.

We don't want to change the whole thing - just 2 sections - one part about how a dog can have attacked you simply because it "appeared threatening" to you, and also the part where animal control officers have the power to seize your dog and destroy it without even notifying you. That gives animal control officers way too much power we think. Don't you think it does?

Here are some of the things we put forward:

The bylaw currently says:

2 (1) In this By-Law,
(d) “attack” means to injure or bite, or to threaten or give the impression of threatening;
(g) “dangerous dog” means any dog which:
(iii) threatens any human being or animal;

(2) Where an Animal Control Officer has reason to believe that a dog has attacked a
person or another animal, and the owner of the dog has been identified, the Animal
Control Officer may do any one or combination of the following enforcement actions:
(a) issue the owner a notice to muzzle the dog;
(b) issue the owner a notice to microchip the dog;
(c) classify the dog as a ‘dangerous dog’ in the municipal registry; or
(d) destroy the dog without permitting the owner to claim it and issue the owner a
notice informing that the dog has been destroyed.

We want everything in red taken out. Animal Control officers can currently cherry pick from any of the above enforcement options - so they can not even charge you with an offence - the first time they come to your house - if they feel like it warrants it - they can just seize your dog and destroy it, and who in their right mind would think that is right? And you can't even appeal the ruling.

We think that only a judge and a court of law should be able to have that power. Period.

Some of the other issues we brought forward were:
• Behavior rankings that define the types of canine behavior that indicate the differences between a less dangerous and a more dangerous dog;
• Bylaws that only allow a Justice to determine whether a dog is a vicious animal – not Animal Control;
• Strict time constraints on pending court cases for vicious or aggressive dog hearing when a dog has been seized and is being impounded – thus less cost to City, less cost to owner – and MUCH LESS trauma to dog;
• Bylaw that uses wording such as “aggressive dog means any dog that has been the subject of an OWNER’S CONVICTION” – puts the complete blame on the owner – not the dog (Central Okanagan bylaw);
• Sliding scale of aggression noting that there are more serious types of aggression ranging from a dog barking at a person, to a dog puncturing the skin in a bite, to a dog killing a person;

Another thing we brought forward was that during the public hearing last September on bylaw A300 - 32 people came and spoke for and against the bylaw, and the "attack" section was talked about by several people - myself included - and that fact was noted in the staff report that came out a couple month's later. What the report said was:

The public commented that:
“Attack” definition states “threatens or gives the impression of threatening” this was an area of concern. One resident also commented that the term without provocation may be hard to prove as a required element.

The staff comments were:
The Municipal Solicitor is recommending that:
i). the definitions of both “bite” and “threatens” be deleted leaving the courts to assess whether within common parlance the animal has bitten or threatened the victim;
ii) the words “without provocation” be removed from “attack” definition consistent with the Calgary Bylaw; and
iii) remove the reference to “chase” leaving the courts to decide whether a threat exist as a result of a chase event.
Option: Amend definition of “attack” means to injure or bite, or to threaten or give the impression of threatening

For some reason though – all of those sections were left in – and Animal Control Services were allowed to determine the level of punishment that dog owners would face – up to and including the destruction of the dog.

When we brought that up to the mayor - he couldn't answer our question why it was left in when the Municipal Solicitor obviously thought it should be taken out.

Overall - we were all really happy with our meeting with Mayor Kelly - now the hard work starts! We have to write him a formal letter stating exactly what it is we want to see done, and then he's going to pass it off to his relevant staff so that they can get an answer back to us - and if our suggestions are good enough - maybe then they'll change the bylaw.

I'm also going to be contacting every HRM councilor with our suggestions to see if one of them will consider bringing it forward at Council. When I sent out my questionnaire to the candidates - 34% of those who responded said that they thought that A300 as it's currently written DOES in fact put dogs in the HRM in danger - and 48% of them said that if they were elected they'd work to have the bylaw rewriten. That says to me that they've been talking to their constituents on front door steps - and their constituents have been telling them that - they're happy that cats are out of the bylaw - but they're worried about their dogs, and something's got to be done.

Marc, Linda and I gave the Mayor an alternative yesterday - I hope someone listens to us.

Do you want to know something funny though? I didn't use the Calgary bylaw though - I've had a really close look at it, and I don't like it. It is SO restrictive, and if you have a dog who's deemed "vicious" - you have got to post a sign of a foaming at the mouth dog at every entrance to your property and your house. I don't like that. And they don't just have one line about dog attacks that "appear threatening" - they have a whole list of "threatening behaviours". So I decided - I don't like the Calgary bylaw. "Bylaw Bill" - as Bill Bruce is now calling himself - can keep his bylaw if you ask me.

I much prefer - the Regional District of Central Okanagan's bylaw, and the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Proposed Dangerous Dog Act - those are the ones we submitted yesterday. Those are really good I think.

Bill Bruce from Calgary Gave a Talk tonight about ANimal Control for HRM Residents!

Many of the city's biggest dog luminaries attended tonight's lecture hosted by John Charles from City Planning to listen to Bill Bruce from Calgary Alberta talk about how his city has tackled dog control bylaws and off-leash dog parks - and everybody sat pretty much spell-bound for his hour long presentation! I certainly was enthralled by everything he said - and I'm pretty sure he knew who he was talking to - because several times through his presentation he made the comment that he "was pretty sure he was preaching to the choir" - and I'm pretty sure he was right.
Some interesting things he talked about were things like - what does control of your dog actually mean in the context of an offleash dog park? Like if an enforcement officer were going to come up to you and give you a little test to see if you had control of your dog in regards to compliance at an off-leash dog park - what would he/she do - and what would they expect you to do to be in compliance when you're in an off-leash dog park - and he said that there are 2 main components: #1 is visual contact - you have to have visual contact with your dog at all times so that you can see if your dog is pooping, is being a nuisance, is doing whatever - and #2 - you have 2 chances to call your dog to you - and if your dog won't come - you're in contravention and you can be fined by a bylaw enforcement officer because you obviously don't have control of your dog - so if you don't have a good recall on your dog - you'd better work on it if you want to use an off-leash dog park!
One neat thing he talked about for all you people who have had enforcement officers come to your door because a neighbour has complained about your dog barking - inside your own house - and you know who I'm talking about! - Bill Bruce said that almost all nuisance and barking aomplaints are dealt with through mediation - and not through bylaw enforcement citations - which I personally think is a MUCH healthier way to go about neighbour relations.
He also said that the City and the local Humane Society breaks up their various duties by thinking about their duties thusly: The Humane Society protects the animals from the people and the City protects the people from the animals - so for instance - one of the attendees asked whether the City offered "puppy socialization classes" because that would be very helpful in lowering euthanization rates and impound rates at the City Pound - Bill Bruce agreed - but something like that is really more of benefit to animals - so that is something that the Humane Society offers - and so they DO - and it is very successful.
I'd say there was a very good turn-out tonight and everybody was listening - I hope when Mr. Bruce meets with the City Council tomorrow morning that they will be listening as intently. Calgary has a 95% compliance rate with their licencing and bring in 4 million dollars a year because of that - which completely funds their Animal Control program - and that program only costs 3.7 million - the balance of that 4 million goes to the Humane Society so that the homeless and abandoned animals also get taken care of - can you believe that? What a world the companion animals have up there - and it's all because the licencing and bylaw system has a value for the money - if your dog gets lost - it actually finds it's way back home, and if your animal gets caught without a licence - there are consequences. Neither of which we have here right now.

If we could also get a little bit of their 141 off-leash dog parks - we'd be really laughing!

If you're feeling really keen - he gave out a powerpoint presentation of the event - if you know me - I can give you a cd of the presentation if you'd like one - just email me and I'll burn you one!

If it looks like a rat ... whack it

The article below blew me away. There's been several articles in the paper and on the television in the last few days about the fact that Alberta is "rat free" and how hard they're working at staying that way.

Today it occurred to me that if I lived in Alberta when I found Mrs Dingle I would've been expected to kill her rather thank rescue her.

I don't smoke marijuana but man - sit back for a second and ponder that. That is deep. Can you imagine? It would've been my civic duty and I would've been breaking the law not to kill her when I saw her on the road. There was a different article from the below one in today's Nova Scotia magazine (a Sunday supplement in the Chronicle Herald) that said the following:

ROUND UP A POSSE

Alberta's fabled rat patrol got a hand from shovel-wielding homeowners last week after dozens of rodents were dumped in a Calgary neighbourhood, threatening the province's rat-free status. Residents and animal control officers killed 37 Norway rats on a normally quiet block in southeast Calgary.

The first rodent was spotted Sept. 12. A resident was able to cover it with a margarine container.

"I could tell we were dealing with naive, almost hopeless rats," said John Bourne, who has spent 30 years with the rat patrol. "We found rats out in the open, seeking cover under structures such as a wooden sidewalk. You would never, ever get a chance to do that with a wild Norway rat. They'd never allow you to get that close."

That says to me that they were dealing with pet rats - domesticated rats - the type of rats that people like you and me treat like members of our families. So they're beating animals over the head with a shovel that we consider as precious as dogs and cats.

And this is happening in our own country.

So what's my point? My point is this - Alberta is certainly allowed to ban rodents. They can do whatever they like. They can also ban pitbulls. They can also ban lesbians and homosexuals - but I bet all those things will still exist in the province ( :) ) - but I don't think that any of them should be dealt with by hitting them over the head with shovels. They are all sentient beings like you and me and deserve to die with the same dignity as you and me and should be euthanized accordingly. If they aren't allowed to exist in Alberta then round them up and send them to where they came from, or kill them humanely - but don't make them suffer a horrible death or torture them needlessly because you see them as being a nuisance - or heaven forbid - vermin!


My "Alberta banned companion" 

If it looks like a rat ... whack it

By DAWN WALTON
From Wednesday September 22nd, 2004 Globe and Mail

Calgary — Most Canadian urbanites see rats and ignore them, but when Calgarians spy the toothy menaces around their homes they pick up brooms, sticks and shovels and start whacking.

In rat-free Alberta, most folks have never seen the rodent first-hand, but for 54 years they've been taught the only good rat is a dead rat.

“I didn't know what it was, not really,” said Warren Cucheran, who was among a group of residents who spotted unfamiliar rodent-like creatures in their southeast neighbourhood last week. “I had some suspicions, but to be quite honest I wasn't sure.”

He hit one with a broom. Another neighbour smacked some with a shovel. Then a group of residents got together and killed 24 in all.

The city was called in and as of yesterday 15 more rats were captured. Traps have been left within a block of the area, but officials think they've sniffed all the critters out.

“We will stay with this until we've got every single last one of them. We will be diligent,” said Bill Bruce, the city's animal and bylaw services manager.

Officials figure somebody who may have been illegally breeding Norway rats for live bait to feed snakes or reptiles, recently dumped them in the area.

It's worrisome for a province that boasts of being rat-free since 1950.

The program was launched with a public awareness campaign — anti-rat posters urged residents to “Kill him!” — and the establishment of a “rat patrol” to scour Alberta's boundaries with Saskatchewan and Montana for pests to poison, trap or shoot.

The province spends about $250,000 a year on rat control, but figures it has saved more than $1-billion in costs related to property damage, crop and livestock losses, and human health.

The Norway rat spread the plague throughout Europe and Asia. It eats through about one-fifth of the world's crops. It breeds rapidly. A pair can produce as many as 35,000 offspring a year.

Scientists and zookeepers can obtain permits to keep rats. But breeding rats to sell as pets or for bait is illegal and punishable under Alberta's pest-control regulation by six months in jail or a fine of up to $5,000.

“It's devastating to our ecology,” Mr. Bruce said. “Look at what one bad cow did to our beef industry. Imagine what a rat can do to our grain and feed supplies.”

John Bourne, the province's vertebrate-pest specialist, has been chasing rats for 35 years.

A couple of years ago a pet shop was selling rats, but he said it wasn't charged after officials found out the operators weren't aware of the legislation. They also managed to track down every rodent the store sold.

From time to time, Mr. Bourne has come across small infestations in rural areas, abandoned buildings and in cities, brought in by people and goods moving through the province. But after his trek to Calgary last weekend, Alberta's head rat hunter said he's has never seen so many released at one location in a city.

“I have no doubt there are underground grow operations producing rats,” he said.

He just needs tips from the public and concrete evidence to step up enforcement and charge those who are breaking the law.

“It's a frightening scenario when you look at the potential of where the rodents might be coming from,” he said. “How many people are doing this, breeding them?”