To: Keith Scott
Subject: Hamilton SPCA and Hamilton Animal Control
Dear Mr. Scott:
I am very concerned with the very high number of animals being killed by Hamilton Animal Control each year. I am aware that HBSPCA does pull some animals from HAC, but the number killed is still unacceptably high. I heard that in the past there was an agreement between HBSPCA and HAC that HAC would not adopt animals to the public in order not to compete with HBSPCA, since you are in the same building. I do believe that this is no longer in effect?
I have written with my concerns to the Mayor & Councillors of Hamilton. I understand that HAC works under the conditions determined by the City.
I would be very interested to have your perspective on the situation and whether you feel that these very high kill rates are really unavoidable. Is there any way that the HBSPCA could help HAC in reducing the number of animals killed each year. I do congratulate HBSPCA on your subsidized spay/neuter clinic. I hope you are getting a great response from the public. Do you also have a TNR program for feral cats? This is something that every jurisdiction must have in order to control the cat population.
I came across the following article and would love to see a co-operation (this was the article Leanne Tucker posted about animal control & humane society working together) like this in Hamilton and the wonderful save rates as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read about my concerns. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely
Eva McDowell
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Enclosed below is his response to me. There are some good points in his response.
From: Keith Scott
Subject: RE: Hamilton SPCA and Hamilton Animal Control
To: "EVA MCDOWELL"
Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 7:44 PM
Ms. McDowell first of all I would like to thank you for your email and the concerns expressed therein.
There is no question, Hamilton Animal Control has been under fire lately for issues that are largely out of their control, as they are for most pounds and animal shelters around the country, when it comes to euthanizing animals and cats in particular.
The HBSPCA has an agreement with HAC whereby we have first right of refusal in the selection of any and all animals that meet our medical and behavioral criteria for adoption once they have cleared their stray time (72 hours). There may have been an understanding that HAC wouldn't provide adoption services as long as we were operating out of the same location however, as far as I am aware they have always offered animals to other pounds, shelters and rescues as we do not have the space required to take them all, especially the kittens and cats.
I am going to assume for the moment the high kill rates you are referring to are the cats and kittens. Given the current situation in the City of Hamilton and surrounding region, I'm not sure this is unavoidable. At this time of the year in particular HAC, HBSPCA, rescues, fosters and other rescues in the region are bursting at the seams with kittens and cats. It is unfortunate there are so many irresponsible owners who either don't believe in the spay/neutering of their pets for whatever reasons or who just don't care because they are disposable. There is a serious overpopulation of cats and kittens in our community many of whom end up on the streets only exacerbating our street cat and feral cat issues across the city. HAC are doing the best they can given the current circumstances they find themselves in and are left dealing with the symptoms.
To do our part in the community, as you indicated, we opened our community assistance program to assist low income individuals and families with the spay and neutering of their pets. This program has had great success to date but we have only begun to scratch the surface of the problem at hand.
The HBSPCA also has a TNR program that has been running for a number of years. Last year alone we spayed and neutered approximately 600 street/feral cats. Our target for this year is to attempt to do the same. Again we are but scratching the surface due to the large number of cats annually abandoned by their owners and left to roam the streets.
What is the solution to the issue(s)? More funding and education? Yes and a willingness on the part of all animal welfare organizations to continue to do their part in working towards an acceptable solution to our community challenges. The general public and pet owners in particular have a huge role to play in this. They cannot abdicate their responsibilities to someone else. Over time with a concerted effort by one and all I am sure we can get the numbers down to an acceptable level whereby mainly those with severe untreatable medical or behavioral conditions will have to be euthanized.
To assist HAC we are no longer bringing in dogs from outside our region as we believe there are enough here that require our attention. In addition we have recently increased our cat/kitten holding capacity in the shelter by 100%. In the years to come we need to renovate the shelter to increase our overall holding capacity for both dogs and cats as a means to assisting HAC and the community. There is no question an expansion of both our community assistance and TNR programs over time will provide some measure of relief to the overpopulation as will more education.
The article attached to your email was very interesting and worthy of further discussion and investigation as to how they accomplished all they have. This is something we should all be striving to achieve and we can definitely learn from each other. We do not have to reinvent the wheel when there are good examples out there we can follow and emulate.
Thank you again for sharing your concerns with us and I do hope I was able to shed some light on the subject matter from my perspective.
Sincerely,
Keith
Keith Scott
Chief Executive Officer
Hamilton/Burlington SPCA
Office - (905) 574-7722 Ext 310
Fax - (905) 574-9087
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