By Sean Meyer/London Community News
Can London become a place where all pets have caring, respectful and responsible home?
That was the fundamental question put to members of the Community and Neighbourhoods Committee on Tuesday (Oct. 18) during a presentation by Jay Stanford, director of environmental programs and solid waste. The report presented to the committee suggested a number of initiatives that could move towards a new approach in dealing with cats and dogs — both those that have homes and those that do not.
“There have been suggestions that London is behind the times. I don’t believe that is the case. We are clearly not the leader, ahead of the pack. But I don’t believe we are behind the times,” Stanford said. “We are right with the pack. That’s not a god thing, but there should be an appreciation that it has taken us time to get to where we are.”
Stanford said although the city isn’t using the term no-kill community, that is essentially what is being worked towards. A no kill community, Stanford said, doesn’t mean there are no animals killed, which is almost impossible to achieve.
“I haven’t come across any communities that truly do not put down any animals. It is almost impossible,” Stanford said. “But the vision we have is a very strong one. Our goal is to get a better handle on what is out in the community, what is nearby the community; that would have interest here. Collaboration is the key to moving forward.”
The report accepted by the committee suggested six recommendations for the city to move forward with.
Those suggestions include seeking expression of interest from potential community partners, examining various short and long-term solutions, examining models — including financial ones — for a variety of animal welfare initiatives, and evaluating options for financing animal services.
Ward 7 Councillor Matt Brown said identifying community partners is a really key element of the report.
“The community-based model is the way to go. A lot of people in this city can add value to this and we need to see how they can work together,” Brown said. “I think there is a real spirit exhibited among interested parties and working together.”
Attitudes when it comes to animal services and initiatives, such as the encouragement and creation of off-leash dog parks came up during discussions on the report.
Stanford stated during his report to the committee that Western Canada appears to have a different mentality when it comes to the relationship between pets and owners. One example of that being found in the City of Calgary, which Stanford said has approximately 140 off-leash dog parks compared to London’s current number of three.
Ward 2 Councillor Bill Armstrong asked Stanford why the city hasn’t developed more off-leash parks and why it hasn’t been more aggressive?
“Perhaps we have too onerous a process in place here. It seems in Calgary, if there is an open space that is underutilized, it is used for dogs and people,” Stanford said. “It has become an accepted way of doing business. Here, we are very structured in our processes.”
Stanford did point out $80,000 has been ear marked for a fourth off-leash park, probably somewhere in the south end.
Stanford said a better job has to be done in giving dog owners greater reason to license their pets. This point helped answer a question raised by Ward 10 Councillor Paul Van Meerbergen — who will pick up the tab for this new vision.
“By following this plan, in terms of covering the potential cost of a plan such as this, is the overall vision that this will be paid for by fees as opposed to going to the tax base?” Van Meerbergen said. “How are we going to pay for this?”
Stanford was able to again point to the example of Calgary, which works to provide value for dog owners.
“In Calgary they provide value for the animals; that is then translated into higher fees coming in, as well as donations from the community,” Stanford said. “We are not going to increase the rate for the existing license… we will be generating more revenue through an increase in the number of licenses.”
