"Fighting like cats and dogs Fallout continues from SPCA's decision to get out of animal control business, leaving other agencies to compete ¨to fill its place"
Published in Saanich News on Oct 13, 2004
Story URL: http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/list.cgi?cat=23&paper=28&id=311472

By Sheila Potter
Saanich News

If your dog is the type to wander off-leash around Saanich, your pet could end up spending a night in uncomfortable conditions. That's the concern of the past president of the BC SPCA, an outspoken critic of the state of local dog pounds.
Saanich officially awarded its animal impoundment contract to the Capital Regional District's animal shelter last week.
"The facilities (at the CRD) are disgusting," said Rick Sargent who stepped down after his two year term as president of the BC SPCA earlier this year.
The SPCA announced last year that it was getting out of the animal control business, focusing instead on preventing cruelty to animals. The decision was partly to ease tensions with the city of Victoria over noise complaints, which escalated to the point the issue was taken up in court last year.
The SPCA's withdrawal from animal enforcement left it with fewer barking dogs at its Victoria location. It also left municipalities searching for other agencies to handle animal enforcement.
Saanich chose to pay the CRD $151,200, over three years, to take animals from the Saanich pound, shelter them while they search for the pets' owners and adopt animals out if the owners aren't found. The CRD animal shelter also euthanizes dangerous dogs.
Sargent told council he asked the SPCA to investigate the CRD's shelter on the Pat Bay Highway for poor conditions he says constitute cruelty to animals.
He was also upset by the price tag of the contract - $50,000 per year rather than the $34,000 a year the SPCA charged to handle animal control.
Acting on Sargent's request, the SPCA investigated the CRD's shelter. The facility passed with "flying colours," said Don Brown, CRD's chief bylaw officer. "I don't know what his (Sargent's) concerns are."
By his own admission, Sargent can be both controversial and aggressive (one of his own dogs had just died, he said, contributing to his mood at the committee of the whole meeting where the issue arose).
Following the meeting, Sargent tempered his comments by saying he did not mean to suggest that Brown was not doing his job. In fact, added Sargent, Brown may be the one to solve the city's dog shelter needs.
Sargent agreed with Brown that the SPCA's financial difficulties made it an unlikely source for a solution.
"I thought that the SPCA was the one to lead the charge, but the SPCA has an anchor around their foot and an albatross around their neck, which prevents them from moving into the 21st century," Sargent said.
Sargent's chief complaint is the small sizes of kennels for dogs and cats in local shelters.
His dream is an animal shelter with communal dog rooms based on the San Francisco SPCA's Maddie's Adoption Center. That centre is next door to animal enforcement, run by a separate agency, that transfers animals over to the SPCA centre for adoption. The centre houses two or three dogs in small rooms with homey furniture and windows, similar to the communal cat room at the Victoria SPCA.
As president, earlier this year, Sargent made a deal with the City of Victoria, promising to start a campaign to raise $1.5 million over the next three years for a new facility.
The agreement was made on the eve of court action against the SPCA over noise complaints about barking dogs at its Victoria location on Napier Lane.
In the short term, the SPCA agreed to install sound insulation into its existing building. For the long term, the SPCA agreed to the concept of a new facility with communal dog rooms - something Sargent believes is the key to prevent dogs from barking. He describes the dogs in San Francisco's facility as "downright laid back."
This agreement was a feather in Sargent's cap. Now, he worries the communal dog rooms will never be built because of the SPCA's continuing financial difficulties.
In fact, Lorie Chotyk, the general manager of community relations for the SPCA says the dream of the communal dog rooms was Sargent's personal dream, not necessarily that of the SPCA.
"We have to work within a balanced budget, it is not as if we have a lot of money we can put toward (the new facility)" she said.
The SPCA is still negotiating with the city of Victoria for the exact type of facility they will build, she says. One option might be to modify the existing facilities to mitigate noise. Noise is the real issue, not the size of the kennels, said Chortyk.
Chortyk says the SPCA has had to cut back expenses because the cost of the shelter in Victoria and the spay/neuter program escalated faster than donations, even though donations have gone up in recent years in Victoria and around the province.
The past few years have been difficult, she said, but the SPCA has a balanced budget for 2004.
Money is also being shared with needier parts of the province.
In 2001, the BC SPCA brought in an internal bylaw that centralized financial decisions with a provincial CEO. Money from rich areas like Victoria are now shared with small rural communities, which need funds for the basics like food.

Small private firm wants Saanich's business too

The private firm that handles animal control for Victoria complained to Saanich council about its tender for animal control.
Ian Fraser from the Victoria Animal Control Services said the rules about how to apply for the contract were too limited.
"The Tender is 100 per cent based on price," he said. Saanich did not want details, such as about the method of euthanization, the wellness of the animals or any spay and neuter programs. Any extra details made the bid invalid.
Part of the equation should have been the quality of care, Fraser said, stating his company operates the best facilities in the region. Which is why he was baffled and angry about SPCA past president Rick Sargent's complaint that the Victoria facility is inadequate. Sargent told Saanich council that conditions in Victoria were "even worse" than the CRD's facility on the Pat Bay Highway, which he is quite critical about.
"I don't know what he was going on about," said Fraser.
Fraser maintains a fund, taken from money earned though his adoption centre, to treat diseased or injured animals.
He worked at the CRD shelter before deciding to go into competition against his former employer for the Victoria contract. He was still an employee of the CRD at the time, and is on indefinite leave from the CRD.