Delta Optimist,
by Jessica Holmes

There is a new animal welfare society in Delta vying for the SPCA shelter contract which expires at the end of the year.

The Delta Humane Society was officially registered this week with five directors made up of local business people, veterinarians and former staff from the Delta SPCA.

Amber Cottle, who was a volunteer trainer for the SPCA, said she spearheaded the project to bring her view of a more local and humane approach to shelter operations.

"The goal is to be able to rehabilitate these dogs so they can be re-homed with very little transition," she said.

"We want to have a go at possibly making things better."

Cottle, who runs South Delta Canine Training Services, would like to see a shelter with larger, homelike kennels with furniture, soundproof glass and acid-stained floors. Dogs would be house trained, obedience trained and taken outside on a regular basis so they don't develop habits which hamper successful adoption.

For this, she knows the group will need reinforcements.

Cottle is hoping to make the new shelter a community-driven movement with increased public participation in operations.

"We want people taking ownership of the new shelter because it's our responsibility to take care of the pets in our community," she said.

The society's plans would be to initially take over the municipally-owned shelter on 80th Street, but eventually move to a more accessible location for the public.

And in return for the public's help, Cottle plans to give back to the community, providing free animal education sessions at the shelter and local schools.

She wants to teach everything from pet care and dog behaviour to obedience and animal-handling for children.

She said the new society will give the municipality an alternative to the SPCA, whose contract is currently under review.

Delta and the SPCA are set to meet in a workshop Tuesday.

Civic politicians called for the review of SPCA practices, in particular its euthanasia criteria, after the much-publicized "dognapping" of Cheech, a Labrador retriever-rottweiler cross which had been scheduled to be euthanized.

"From what I see, I think the (euthanasia) assessment procedure they currently use is lacking," Coun. Robert Campbell said.

Campbell also worries Delta is subsidizing other municipalities with its team of high caliber volunteers that gets animals adopted.

"We have this really tremendous network of volunteers - and links to adoption through those volunteers," he said.

The SPCA hopes to keep its contract with Delta and said it can't help recent bad publicity on Cheech as well as executive salaries, which were reported to hit $204,000.

"Sometimes there's stories that are suitable for the media and get a lot of attention," SPCA spokesman Lorie Chortyk said.

She added the SPCA's assessment program is a 10-step process which takes about two hours and has been scientifically-proven over a seven-year study.

Chortyk said the cancellation of municipal shelter contracts does hurt operations because the SPCA won't have a presence to carry out its mandate to protect all the homeless and surrendered animals in B.C., but it will continue to perform other operations in the area, such as cruelty investigations.

Coquitlam, Langley Township and the District of North Vancouver have all recently cancelled their SPCA shelter contracts.

Judy Stone of Animal Advocates of B.C. said any move to a localized shelter organization is good.

"You can't vote at the SPCA," she said. "If your municipality or council is responsible for things being done at your animal shelter, that gives residents a lot of control."

Cottle said the society has the backing of many locals involved in animal welfare, including the Tsawwassen Animal Hospital and the Trenant Park Pet Clinic, which are both involved with the SPCA. Tsawwassen Animal Hospital veterinarian Tina Gemeinhardt is one of the new society's directors.

Cottle said other benefits to the society include fiscal accountability, since financial statements are submitted for public record yearly under the Societies Act of B.C.

Also, she said, euthanasia assessments will be done over a longer period of time than SPCA assessments and decided upon by a committee.

Cottle admits her goals are lofty.

"Really, the sky's the limit," she said. "Whatever the community wants, we can do, depending on how much support we get. That's the exciting thing, especially in this community."

The SPCA and Delta Humane Society will both be making presentations to council in the coming months.