Halifax area seeks new animal shelter
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 6:00 PM AT CBC News
The Halifax Regional Municipality is looking for a new animal shelter service to house rescued and neglected dogs, cats and exotic animals.
The city is looking for a shelter with a minimum of 15 kennels for dogs, five for cats and at least one for other animals such as ferrets and reptiles.
It must also have a contingency plan to handle any overflow and a way to care for animals for an extended period of time if they are held for evidence or court proceedings.
The shelter would be the keeper for all animals picked up by HRM Animal Services, so the tender also calls for a facility that can provide 24-hour access for animal by-law officers.
Coun. David Hendsbee said the city is not interested in building its own facility because it would cost more than $1 million.
"All we're doing is looking for a venue available to us to use for services … a proponent in the general public to see if they have a facility either available now or want to build a facility they can utilize to service this contract," he said.
Old contract expires
The current shelter, run by the Nova Scotia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, receives about $500,000 a year from the city for its services. But the city's contract with the non-profit organization expires next spring.
A study by the municipality in 2005 found that the SPCA shelter in Burnside was "barely adequate in virtually every aspect of shelter management."
"Because of its poor design, it makes it extremely difficult to provide proper upkeep and maintenance," the report said. "It is surprising what is being accomplished in spite of the condition of the facility."
The report concluded that upgrading the facility was "virtually impossible" without gutting the entire building and renovating the inside.
Hendsbee said Friday the SPCA may still put in a bid on the current tender, but there could also be other interested parties.
"I think there's a number of kennel operations and other pet-care facilities out there that may want to look at this as an opportunity," he said. "We may have vacant warehouses anywhere in the Metro area that could possibly be utilized."
The contract is for a maximum of five years. Proposals must be submitted by Dec. 1 and municipal officials want the service to be in place by next April 1.
For anyone who hasn't read the report, or who wants to revisit it, a copy may be found online at http://www.nshomelesspets.com/2008_04_24_10_17_51.pdf
So this is a very interesting little tidbit to see tucked away in the Friday evening news. Traditionally, that is where politicians try to introduce the action items they are trying to slip in under the public radar.
On the surface it seems innocuous ... so why does it have the hair standing up on the back of my neck?
- I know I've mentioned it before, but there is an ongoing study that is being done by the No Kill Advocacy Center, that concludes that that when animal control sheltering services are contracted out, the municipality only saves money because they are not actually assuming responsibility for all the costs associated with providing responsible pet adoption ( ie vet checks, vaccinating and of course altering ) http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/pdf/leadershipstudy_000.pdf
- According to the CBC article, HRM is looking for a minimum housing of 15 dog kennels, 5 cat kennels and 1 "other' kennel. Last year, nearly half (48.5%) of the 764 dogs taken into Metro were claimed by their owners, while only a fraction (1.8%) of the 1041 cats went back home to their owners. That begs the question ...what does HRM plan on doing with the cats.... bearing in mind that animal control is a municipal responsibility.
- Although I am continually advocating that it would be in the best interests of the animals ( and the taxpayers ) for all municipalities to assume responsibility for their animal control sheltering, the article is still quite skewed, because it fails to mention any of the significant improvements that have been made by the hard working folks at Metro. Instead it implies that nothing has really changed at Metro since the report was written, and makes no mention of the fact that this report, which was paid for by taxpayer dollars, was kept secret by HRM until last year.
- In spite of the improvements to Metro, apparantly Councillor Hendsbee feels that it might be more appropriate to utilize "vacant warehouses"
- No mention is made of any safeguards for the animals. Will these "vacant warehouses" be centrally located in an area convenient to the public? Will adoption be encouraged? If so, will there be user friendly adoption hours? Will "pound puppies (and cats) " be altered/vet checked/etc before adoption?
- More importantly, what will happen to the animals when the 72 hour hold period is up? Will they expect the SPCA to assume the burden of the rescue costs without any compensation at all? Or will there be another contract for Unhappy Tails with HRM veterinarians to kill the cats and dogs when their time is up?
- If animals are held for an extended period of time ... such as a Brindi... how will that impact on the outcome for the other animals?
- Contracting out a sheltering facility absolves the city of its obligation to save long term tax dollars by promoting the lifesaving programs recommended in their own report, such as free lifetime licenses for microchipped and altered pets. There will be no need for the city to invest in workshops for obedience training. Mind you, given the constant struggle that responsible dog owners and advocates like my friend Joan blogs about, http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/, it doesn't sound like HRM has a whole lot of interest in changing their status quo.
What time is it? To paraphrase the old newscast from the seventies ... its eleven o'clock ... do you know what your politicians are doing?
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