Delta Optimist:Dec 29/04 New group is poised to take control of shelter/SPCA will still maintain a presence in Delta
Wednesday, December 29, 2004 10:26 AM
The new group preparing to take over Delta's animal shelter at the beginning of the year has some big goals, but also a few challenges ahead.

by Sandor Gyarmati

The new group preparing to take over Delta's animal shelter at the beginning of the year has some big goals, but also a few challenges ahead.

This fall, the Delta Humane Society, a non-profit group that will move into

the municipally-owned shelter on 80th Street, was awarded a three-year contract that had been held for decades by the SPCA.

The SPCA's contract expires Dec. 31.

Delta council decided to seek a request for proposals following a storm of controversy over an SPCA attempt to euthanize a healthy dog named Cheech. The dog was subsequently snatched by SPCA employees Amanda Muir and Kirsten McConnell.

The SPCA had done temperament testing that allegedly found Cheech to be aggressive, but the plan to put the dog to sleep caused an uproar and put the society's kill policy into question.

The new animal group was formed quickly this summer and put in a bid for the contract.

"Cheech, you can say, was just the straw that broke the camel's back and we formed really because of incidents leading up to that," said Amber Cottle, a local dog trainer and the new group's executive director.

"There was a lot going on that those of us behind the scenes didn't agree with," she said.

The Delta Humane Society will be drawing upon the expertise of several people with experience with animals, including Muir and McConnell, who will be paid staffers for the new society.

The board of directors includes Cottle, a couple of local entrepreneurs and Tina Gemeinhardt, who owns the Tsawwassen Animal Hospital.

"We will be doing all the operations that the SPCA was doing, including cruelty investigations. We can investigate and take them to the Crown," said Cottle.

One of the stipulations in the new contract is that animals won't be brought in from outside the municipality to the Delta shelter.

Although the new group doesn't have an outright "no kill" policy, it is different from the SPCA on that front, Cottle explained. It will require a minimum of three signatures and input from everyone who had contact with a particular animal to see if it can be rehabilitated and back put into the adoption program before it's euthanized.

Aside from cruelty investigations, collecting dead animals by the road side, responding to barking dog complaints and reuniting strays with their owners, the new society also plans to start education programs, a free spaying/neutering program one day a month for low income pet owners, a Companion Pet program for qualifying seniors and the spaying/neutering of feral cats.

As with the SPCA, taxpayers will continue to provide $225,000 a year for operational costs.

"The amount of money that taxpayers pay for animal control is $3.30 per year, per taxpayer, so it's a very insignificant amount," Cottle said.

The Delta Humane Society also will able to collect money through licences, adoption fees and donations. Licences are expected to generate about $160,000 per year.

Cottle said her society is community-based, so all the money that comes from Delta goes right back into the operations of the Delta shelter.

The Delta Humane Society will also be depending on volunteers to help the five paid staff members at the shelter, who include two other former SPCA employees along with Muir and McConnell.

"They have years of experience with animal control and care and they were the core group and one of the reasons why we started this organization," said Cottle. "They are the passion behind the Delta Humane Society."

Cottle noted the new society doesn't have a lot of money for its start up costs but the community is coming through with donations, including equipment.

"The biggest expense right now is that we need cat cages which will be anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000 because the SPCA doesn't want to sell us the cat cages that are in that shelter."

For more information or to make a donation, go to www.deltahumanesociety.org or call 604-940-7111.

This is Cheech, who Lori Chortyk, the SPCA's Head of P.R., and Nadine Gourkow, the SPCA's enforcer of the "test" that Cheech allegedly failed, said lunges at children's throats, but has never shown any proof: no reports, no parents, and who said that Cheech is more dangerous than the dogs that attacked Shenica White, though the SPCA did not ever see those dogs and nor were those dogs ever tested by any agency....