Animal Advocates Watchdog

North Vancouver City has no "after-hours" animal control in place

City has no 'after-hours' animal control in place
Private citizen collects pets hit by cars after SPCA ends contract
By Jessica Barrett, North Shore News December 8, 2009 A local animal lover says she has been tasked with caring for injured and dying animals since the B.C. SPCA pulled out of its contract with the City of North Vancouver, leaving the municipality without after-hours animal control.

Bonnie Lilley said RCMP called on her to tend to a cat that had been hit by a car on the evening of Nov. 30.

"I was called up by the RCMP because they know I do this," Lilley said in an interview. "So I went and got the cat, it was alive when I got there, but it had to be put down. A citizen shouldn't have to be responsible for doing this."

Lilley, a well-known animal welfare volunteer operating as Fur and Feathers Rescue, said she is called two or three times a week during the winter to tend to injured wildlife on the North Shore. In the summer months, she said she gets daily calls.

Since the end of the SPCA contract, Lilley said she's been asked to respond to family pets that have been injured. "I wouldn't say there's been an increase in calls. What I wasn't doing prior to this was going out for animals hit by cars. Now I'm being called for animals that have been hit by cars, most of those have been cats," she said.

The SPCA terminated its services with the city Nov. 27, ending a 35-year contract, said Don Sigston, the city's deputy director of corporate services.

An SPCA spokesman previously told the North Shore News the organization was pulling out of its contract in order to focus solely on preventing cruelty to animals and that enforcing municipal bylaws did not fall under that mandate.

Sigston, who worked for the District of North Vancouver when it transitioned out of its SPCA contract in 2002, said the city has hired an animal control officer and has contracted Northwest Kennels in North Vancouver to keep domestic animals overnight. It is not an animal control facility.

Sigston said a complete transition would take time. "It'll be a work in progress for us for at least a month," he said, adding the district's transition took nearly one year.

Sigston said the city did not partner with the district, which has its own animal shelter and control staff, because "they wanted too much money."

He said the decision to partner with Northwest Kennels was made by council because it offered the best service for the least cost. However the cost of contracting the kennel is yet to be determined. "It's pay-as-you-go for the first while and we'll find out what it costs. Since we've contracted with the SPCA for so long, it's kind of new for us," Sigston said.

He added he is currently meeting with council, the RCMP and other interested parties to determine after hours animal control policy in response to the amount of calls. "We're trying to keep costs down, we have (the animal control officer) on five days a week and we're going to have a couple of our bylaw officers trained," Sigston said. He added he has not received any complaints since the SPCA terminated its service. The City of North Vancouver's animal control officer can be reached at 604-904-7378.

Read more: http://www.nsnews.com/City+after+hours+animal+control+place/2320657/story.html#ixzz1MpDvdEDr

Share