Calgary Animal Control Webinar - Tomorrow MORNING, 8/19!

Several years ago, Kansas City Dog Advocates brought Calgary's Animal Bylaw Services Director Bill Bruce to town to speak at our Canine Legislation Conference.

Bill's vision of animal control in his city completely changed my way of thinking about animal control, animal control enforcement, and shelter killing. 

Calgary's approach to animal control is different than most other places. Bill's approach is somewhat different than that of Nathan Winograd (although there are similarities). But the end result is pretty much the same.  And Calgary has seen tremendous success in lowering dangerous-dog related incidents and eliminating killing -- and he's done so without breed-specific laws and without mandatory spay/neuter.

Petsmart Charities is hosting a Webinar with Bill Bruce tomorrow at 9 am Pacific Daylight time.  It's a 2 hour presentation.  

I am planning about writing a blog about no kill animal control in the next week or two.  Much of that post is going to feature thoughts after Mitch Schneider's (Reno, NV) presentation at the No Kill Conference, but I do plan to incorporate some of Calgary's ideas in that write-up (many of their ideas are very similar).  But for now, I strongly encourage you to watch the Webinar tomorrow

Here's my previous blog post from 2007 about Bill Bruce and Calgary.

H/T on the Webinar from Stop BSL

Comments

[Puppy Mills Breed nothing but Misery]

Calgary's animal control plan is funded through rather large licensing fees which places the entire animal control funding entirely on responsible pet owners who might not even use the services. The license fees are $31 for an altered pet and $50 for an unaltered pet.

Someone with ten dogs would be paying over $300 in licensing fees alone. Animal control costs should be funded through property taxes just the same as schools are funded. People who don't own pets still benifit from the community safety animal control provides and being able to have roamimg pets picked up on complaints.

[Brent]

PMB,

I would tend to agree that I believe their licensing fees are too high and thus, cost-prohibitive for many families. I'd much rather see the program funded in part by licensing fees (say $10/$15) and the rest with tax dollars. While I agree that everyone benefits from a strong animal control, I don't have a problem with pet owners offsetting the cost of it. Plus, if the pets get a free ride home if they are ever found, it is still a service for that fee vs a punitive measure. The rest of their program is mostly rock-solid though.

[Roberta]

Dang. Saw this this afternoon and is now too late; not recorded on Petsmart :(. Sounds terrific. Different strokes for different folks. Sorry I missed it - it is not yet listed as recorded. Do you know if it was? Thanks.

[Brent]

Roberta -- I don't know if it was recorded or if it will be offered again. If I hear of something I'll let you know...

[kmk]

Doesn't Kansas City, Missouri charge about a $35 license fee for an unaltered pet?

My rule of thumb is it should not cost more to license your pet than it costs to license your car.

[Brent]

It is $10 for an altered pet in kcmo. I think it is the same for unaltered.