The West Vancouver SPCA isn't supposed to accept animals from the City of North Vancouver -- but it's a hard policy to keep.
"They'll say, 'Well, I'm just going to drop it off in a field,' so we're almost blackmailed, emotionally blackmailed," said Lorie Chortyk, spokeswoman for the B.C. SPCA. It's against the law to abandon an animal, but that's the risk when one municipality decides they don't need an animal shelter, she said.
The City of North Vancouver has been without a shelter since 2009, when a contract with the SPCA ended. They do have an animal control officer who works business hours and Mayor Darrell Mussatto says they still pick up strays, taking them to Northwest Kennels, located in the District of North Vancouver, for adoption.
But the municipality does not accept unwanted animals from residents. Instead, said Mussatto, they encourage pet owners to take responsibility for their own choices and not dump animals on the city.
But that's not what happens, say advocates and the SPCA.
In 2010, 13 of the 84 animals dropped off at the West Vancouver shelter came from the City of North Vancouver, with most owners claiming they found them as strays, which the city is supposed to handle themselves. By contrast, nine came from the district.
That's an unusually high level, said Chortyk.
"We don't normally have that issue, but it looks like it's become an issue in West Vancouver," she said. "We do see this in other areas where one municipality will just do nothing and those animals will have to go somewhere, and then a neighbouring municipality ends up being financially responsible when it really isn't their role."
The lack of shelter is also a constant source of concern for Bonnie Lilley, who makes up the one-woman operation of Fur and Feathers Rescue.
She's often called by the RCMP to pick up animals that police find on the job, she said, especially after hours when auxiliary staff at the city are busy or not available. But twice in the last month, the city has refused to accept the animal in question prior to her special kind of diplomacy, she said.
"I threatened to take it down and tie it to the mayor's door knob, and they move really quick when I do that," said Lilley, who spoke out about the issue back in 2009.
She said it's the city's responsibility to take care of animals in their area, and not having a proper shelter means they can't do that. Without a shelter, she said, animals are more likely to be abandoned and, if they stay in the kennel too long, euthanized.
The District of North Vancouver does have a shelter, located in the Lower Lynn area, and they offered in 2009 to operate the shelter jointly, but at the time the city balked at the cost. The district remains open to that discussion, said Jeanine Bratina, spokeswoman for the district.
The district shelter also takes city animals, though it charges an additional $300 fee. Both the district and West Vancouver accept unwanted animals from owners, as long as owners pay the required fees.
Mussatto said the municipality's system works "99 per cent of the time" and saw no reason to change it.
"Should an owner of a pet not want that animal anymore, they just simply can't give it to the city," he said, emphasizing personal responsibility. They euthanize animals very rarely, he added, and that's still done by the SPCA.
At the same time, he hopes that neighbouring municipalities adhere to the same policy when dealing with city residents.
As the volunteers at the SPCA in West Vancouver already know, that leaves them with a tough choice, said Chortyk.
"Obviously we want to help every animal in the end, but there's cost associated with caring for those animals and in terms of stray dogs, that really is a municipality's responsibility," she said.