2011 No More Homeless Pets National Conference Playbook City of Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services Organization: Featuring: Title: Bill Bruce Director
Bill Bruce The City of Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services, which is part of the City of Calgary Protective Services, is responsible for the enforcement of municipal bylaws, including the Responsible Pet Guardianship bylaw. The agency also helps the Calgary Humane Society enforce the Animal Protection Act and investigates issues related to animal cruelty when needed. Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services shelters animals, operates volunteer programs, and has pets available for adoption. Their mission and philosophy are to encourage a safe, healthy and vibrant community for people and their pets through bylaws that reflect community values. They develop and educate the community about the bylaws. They strive to obtain voluntary compliance with municipal bylaws by using education first and then enforcement. As a result of this approach, their responsible pet guardianship philosophy and cat and dog licensing programs are viewed as models for municipalities across North America. Through private and public partnerships, including the Responsible Pet Guardianship Partnership, Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services advocates for responsible pet guardianship. (The members of the Responsible Pet Guardianship Partners include the following agencies: the city of Calgary, Calgary Humane Society, Animal Rescue Foundation, MEOW Foundation, Calgary Veterinary Medical Association, Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society, breeders, trainers and citizens.) Responsible pet guardianship has proved to be a reliable means to keep the community safe and can be exemplified in such results as a low rate of dog aggression incidents without the use of breed-discriminatory legislation or pet limit laws. In 2010, their animal control officers saw 88 percent of animal calls resolved through compliance rather than enforcement options. Also in 2010, of the 4,330 dogs and 869 cats who entered their system, 86 percent of the dogs and 55 percent of the cats were reunited with their families. Additionally, 9 percent of the dogs and 27 percent of the cats were adopted into new homes. 1
Under Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services director Bill Bruce, they have outlined for the public what their expectations for pet guardians are through their Five Guiding Principles: Principle #1: Provide a license and permanent identification. Principle #2: Spay or neuter your pet. Principle #3: Provide training, socialization, proper diet and medical care. Principle #4: Don t allow your pet to become a threat or nuisance. Principle #5: Procure your companion from an ethical source. In 2010, they expanded their lifesaving reach by implementing a no-cost spay/neuter clinic for low-income families that is also available to their rescue partners. Also in 2010, they launched a media blitz called Feline Frenzy, in conjunction with their partners, the MEOW Foundation and the Calgary Humane Society, as well as a pet of the week, which includes a featured video of the animal waiting for adoption at Calgary Animal Services. Their goal for the future includes zero euthanasia for any treatable animal in the city of Calgary. Responsible Pet Guardianship Guiding principle #1 is to provide a license and permanent identification for a pet. The expectation of a pet guardian is not just supplying food and water to an animal; it is a total commitment. Guardians must adhere to that commitment by ensuring their pet can be returned to them in the event that the pet is separated from them. If an animal is found at large by an animal control officer, and the pet has his or her tag, or a tattoo or microchip, the animal will be driven straight home. This cuts down on the animals entering the shelter system and allows an officer to open a dialogue with the pet s guardian to find out why the animal had an opportunity to wander away from home. The officer offers counseling on how to keep the pet safer in the future. All officers are trained in dog handling and mediation and have the latest technology to ensure that the transaction from picking up pets to reuniting them with their family goes as efficiently and courteously as possible. The Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services attention to detail is paying off: In a 2010 Citizen Satisfaction Survey, Animal Services received an 89 percent satisfaction score. Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services offers a discounted license rate for spayed and neutered pets, another incentive for guardians to act responsibly. The pet licensing fees allow the agency to be monetarily sustainable, and they put the funds back into the community to help people and pets. Animal behavior training for officers: The goal is for officers to capture the animals with the lowest level of force, ideally to have animals willingly approach officers. The officers training allows them to make the experience the least stressful for wayward pets. Mediation training for officers: The officers training and certification in mediation helps them make quality customer service a top priority. This helps restore people s trust in the 2
government and the agency and ultimately helps build a responsible community. License access: In order to make license compliance as easy as possible for the public, licensing opportunities have been provided through a number of avenues: filling out a renewal notice that has been automatically sent out, calling a 24-hour hotline, filling out an online form, or filling out a form in person at the agency or bank and giving it directly to an officer or putting it in a night deposit box. Implemented nuisance designation: As a way to deter pet guardians from acting irresponsibly, there are temporary penalties for people with repeat citations: an increased licensing fee and double the fines. The offenders get behavior consultation, which can result in mandatory training sessions. After a year without any incidents, the designation is lifted. Reinvesting in the community s animals: Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services ensures that every dollar they receive from their licensing program goes right back into the community to help the animals and their people. The agency s $5.4 million annual budget is provided by the license fees and not from taxpayer dollars. Their state-of-the-art Animal Services Centre, built in 2000 for $3.5 million, was completely paid for from their coffers. Paradigm shift: Shifting the animal control officers mindset from enforcement of bylaws to effecting compliance with bylaws took time and proper coaching. They needed to fully understand that the number of tickets issued and any revenue generated were not the goals. An officer needed to listen to what a guardian s barriers were, offer practical solutions, and be clear about expectations. A key to doing this better next time will be to do more preparatory work with staff on the changes coming and how they will be beneficial. Heavy enforcement: Building trust with the public took time and dedication. It took commitment to help the public understand the goal of the pet license was to help keep their pets safe and change the public s perception of animal control officers as safety-minded civil servants, not dogcatchers. Heavy enforcement programs do not support building trust and punishment does not necessarily resolve an issue. Lastly, heavy enforcement is not sustainable. Continuing to expand the I Heart My Pet rewards program: The newly launched I Heart My Pet rewards program for responsible pet guardians is the city s way of thanking the thousands of Calgarians who choose to license their cat or dog. The card gives discounts on a variety of products and services at more than 40 partnering vendors. By using the card just a couple of times, pet guardians can recoup the cost of their licensing fee. The advantage to vendors includes showing that their business is concerned about the health and safety of their community s pets and attracting new clientele from the 160,000+ license-holding guardians. This program is an example of the three p s aligning perfectly: private public partnership. Identifying pets remains to offer closure to pet guardians: Fitting with their philosophy that every animal is an individual life that is special, the City of Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services is working with Calgary Roads to bring in the remains of cats or dogs killed on Calgary s streets to the Animal Services Centre for identification. The goal of this program is to provide closure to pet guardians by identifying pets remains. It gives a measure of dignity to pets who had their lives taken. It is also being used to track the number of fatal accidents that befall the community s pets, and is helping to save more lives by educating the public about pet fatalities. Case in point: In 2009, the number of cats picked up was 693, while in 2010, 483 were brought in, a significant decrease in fatalities. (This program was initiated and fully operational in August 2011.) Building on results: Statistics are reliable indicators as to whether the bylaws are working or not. Aggressive dog incidents, animals impounded, bylaw infractions, and the euthanasia rate are all down, while the percentage of animals licensed and Calgary Animal 3
& Bylaw Services financial performance are up. By being able to clearly measure their success, the agency is able to continue to do more for the animals, and where performance is lacking, they can earmark more resources. Increasing number of cats and dogs licensed: Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services is working towards 100 percent compliance for dogs and to raise cats above the current rate of 55 percent compliance. Again, this is an animal s ticket home, so the more pets who are licensed, the more often the agency will be able to reunite animals with their families if they are lost or stolen. The agency is also striving to attain 100 percent return to guardian. Responsible Pet Guardianship elements By engaging the public, aka stakeholders, with events and proper pet care counseling, Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services maximizes their opportunities to support responsible guardians. The stakeholders include community animal experts, the public, and victims of an animal incident. The agency does not advocate breed-discriminatory legislation or pet limit laws, as they believe that poor animal behavior is the result of a failed relationship between guardian and pet. Their goals are to strengthen the bond between the animal and the person and give people tools to address animal challenges. They partner with other organizations that have the same goals and believe in cooperation to help bring about positive results. As Bill succinctly points out, Aggressive dogs are not an accident. They are either created on purpose, and those guardians that are guilty need to be dealt with harshly, or they are the result of an unconscious incompetent, those guardians who didn t know what they were doing and did not recognize the warning signs of a dog becoming aggressive. Those guardians need support and need to be educated with such resources as Ian Dunbar s six levels of aggression outline. Dr. Ian Dunbar s six levels of aggression, from his dog bite scale, is a widely accepted guideline that helps illustrate a dog s aggression response. It gives guardians and trainers the tools to address a dog s escalating aggression before it is out of control. By providing education, the agency is adhering to their Guiding Principle #3 provide training, socialization, proper diet and medical care and Principle #4, don t allow your pet to become a threat or nuisance. Engaging the stakeholders in the solutions: By including the stakeholders in the decisions regarding animal bylaws and actively seeking input from them, Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services is best able to serve their community. The community is more apt to get involved in the solutions by being heard and validated from the beginning. RDOG (Responsible Dog Ownership) Day: The City of Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services 4
partners with Calgary Associated Dog Fanciers for this national initiative of the Canadian Kennel Club. The event draws groups and individual dog guardians across Canada to take part in events to support, promote and demonstrate responsible dog guardianship. Pick Up Pooch s Poo Yourself (P.U.P.P.Y.) program: In order to maintain, preserve and utilize the city s parks and green spaces in a sustainable manner, the City of Calgary Parks, in partnership with Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services, has created the Pick Up Pooch s Poo Yourself (P.U.P.P.Y.) program. The intention of this program is to educate citizens about the importance of picking up after their pets and to familiarize them with responsible pet guardianship. Online cat and dog care resources: Animal care resources for both cats and dogs are readily available on Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services website. Their resource page includes information about the importance of licensing, microchipping and spaying and neutering as responsible pet care. Education for schools: There are currently quite a few Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services programs provided for school children, including PAWS Dog Bite Prevention program, Dogs in Our Society, Junior Bylaw Project, and Think Responsibly. The presentations target the youngest members of the community, keeping in lockstep with Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services overarching credo that education is the cornerstone of dog bite prevention. The total costs of the program are absorbed by the agency and do not come out of the school system s budget. Since 2002, the number of students they reach annually has just about tripled. N/A Attain No More Homeless Pets in five years: Calgary is currently considered a no-kill community, but the agency wants to take their No More Homeless Pets commitment to the next level by helping more animals with treatable issues, such as food aggression or extreme medical issues, get rehabilitated. By addressing the barriers between unadoptable and adoptable, they will be able save even more lives. Forming a consensus: By engaging quite a few various factions, including their stakeholders and members of the Responsible Pet Guardianship Partnership, the City of Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services needs to apply their mediation training on a bigger scale to get results that will make the community healthier, safer and better for all its citizens both human and pet alike. Adoption program elements When animals are not reunited with their guardians, the City of Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services ensures that they are given every opportunity to find a loving home. Each animal is given a name, a full medical and behavior assessment, and then posted on the agency s website. Independent rescue organizations and breed rescues monitor the website and are 5
encouraged to take the animals they can place; otherwise the animals are available for public adoption. Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services works closely with these rescue partners and charges them no fee to take the homeless pets (the agency also spays or neuters them before releasing them). As Bill says, The shelter environment is not a home. We are a big system to triage them, but then we need to get them on their way to a family setting. Their adoption elements support Guiding Principle #5 procure your companion from an ethical source. Annual Feline Frenzy: To help their fantastic felines find forever homes, Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services began implementing an annual week-long Feline Frenzy. Cats are offered at half the normal adoption fee. There is a special media promotion to highlight the adoptable cats. Pet of the Week: Highlighting a new pet or bonded pet pals (where two pets are better adopted together than apart) each week by featuring their bio, image and video prominently on their website, the promotion aims to connect homeless pets with the perfect person or family. Partnering with rescues: Ensuring easy access to outside organizations that can take their homeless pets, Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services gives their animals every opportunity to find a perfect forever home. The agency absorbs the costs of spaying and neutering to help their rescue partners further. The agency does not hold fundraising events as they absolutely value their rescue partners and do not want to compete with them in the financial arena. Maximizing the media as a resource: If certain pets have been at their facility for a while, they create a press release and use the local media to help get those cats and dogs into homes. N/A City of Calgary Pets new mobile application: Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services is excited to release their new mobile application called City of Calgary Pets. This application connects Calgarians to the Animal Services Centre, where lost and adoptable cats and dogs are safely waiting to be reunited with their guardians or adopted into forever homes. The mobile application promotes responsible pet guardianship, providing information on pet adoption and licensing for cats and dogs. Volunteer program elements Volunteers play an important role in helping the animals become happy, healthy and socialized. Through their PAWS Pal program (Positive Animal Wellness Support), Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services volunteers are given proper training to help the animals become the best companions possible. The program is mutually beneficial: It s a stress reliever for 6
the volunteers to spend time with the animals, and the animals get the ongoing socialization they need while waiting for their forever home. As Bill says, It s a myth that cats are these elusive creatures. Cats can be just as responsive as dogs; they just need the right interaction. They are not couch cushions and we don t treat them as such. Dogs and cats get the extra attention they require thanks to the PAWS Pal program s volunteers. Improved socialization for cats and dogs: The volunteers are given the tools to socialize both cats and dogs and further training in positive-reinforcement dog behavior modification and obedience training. The volunteers are vital to the mental health of the animals and making them more adoptable. Better adoption matches: Thanks to the volunteers in the PAWS Pal program, the staff at Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services is able to make better connections between their pets-inwaiting and their potential new guardians. The volunteers write down everything from their volunteer sessions in a logbook and the staff is able to get a better insight into the personality of the animal. Carefully choosing volunteers roles: Since the City of Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services provide union jobs, they had to be careful to make sure that volunteers were not taking any potential jobs away from union workers. To avoid conflicts, they looked at what people were paid to do and assessed what the animals could benefit from that no one was currently employed to do. Backlog of volunteers: The success of the PAWS Pal program is a double-edged sword: Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services currently has more volunteers signed up than they have the capacity to utilize. Robust foster network: Getting a fully trained foster network in place will help Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services get more animals into homes and provide premium care for their special-needs animals. From animals who require rehabilitation for physical and/or behavior issues, to animals who need loving care post-surgery, having a foster network in place will be the ultimate safety net for at-risk animals. It will also capitalize on the community s willingness to volunteer, while helping further their engagement with Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services and empowering them to become a more active partner in realizing a time of No More Homeless Pets in Calgary. Spay and neuter program elements To support their guiding principle #2 spay or neuter your pet in 2010, Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services started a no-cost spay/neuter program to serve as a resource for their 7
lowest income residents. Financially challenged residents are not charged to get their pets spayed or neutered, and multiple-pet households can bring in all their pets at one time to have the procedures done. As Bill shares, Spaying and neutering pets is the most humane form of animal control available. Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services rallied a diverse group from many sectors to act as an advisory team called the Responsible Pet Guardianship Partners. Other animal rescue groups, veterinarians and breeders represent different factions that helped ensure the clinic could open without a hitch and continue to run smoothly. Engaging the animal medical community upfront: Reaching out to the veterinarian community in the planning stages made the veterinarians partners in the program and thus eliminated any natural fears they had. This enabled Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services to work through any issues and troubleshoot with the medical experts before they occurred. The role of the government meshed with the role of the private sector to help realize a shared goal. The licensed clinic opened with resounding support from the whole community. Financing the program: Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services was able to offset the additional costs of the whole new spay/neuter service through their cat licensing fees. Reaching their target audience: Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services is exploring ways to reach more of their area s low-income families to make sure as many pets as possible are spayed and neutered. Their current strategy of utilizing the city call centre and media advertising has not generated as many spay/neuter requests as they had hoped. They still get more requests for surgery for dogs although cats remain their biggest challenge. They did a door-to-door information drop in a number of challenged neighborhoods and had marginal success. The next plan is more engagement in the communities on the benefits of spay/neuter and how to access the program. Increasing surgery capacity: With the high demand for spay and neuter procedures, the clinic is already booked through 2012. They are looking at how the clinic can accommodate more animals. Moving the bar to zero euthanasia: To help Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services redefine which animals are adoptable, their clinic is equipped to allow expensive procedures to be performed that will allow animals with challenges to be adoptable. Being able to address more expensive or complicated medical conditions within their own facility will allow more animals to get the specialized care they need to become adoptable. Providing services to the rescue community: Calgary Animal & Bylaw Services is looking at ways to help their rescue partners provide quality care to the pets in their charge. The clinic is available to other organizations and their veterinarian partners as a venue at which to perform more expensive and complicated procedures. Veterinarians can donate their time without incurring any cost to their own clinic. 8