Exclusive briefing from Canada’s foremost animal control expert Bill Bruce

Most recently I was among a select few elected officials invited to an exclusive two hour briefing by Bill Bruce, the highly respected director of Animal and Bylaw Services and Chief Bylaw Enforcement Officer/Protective Services, for the City of Calgary. When I began organizing meetings last summer to launch the City of Côte Saint-Luc’s first formal Trap Neuter Release (TNR) Program to try and control  our cat population, Bill Bruce’s name came up often as the top authority in  Canada in this area.

While a Côte Saint-Luc Cat Committee has been established, we are still in the infancy stages. Volunteers are being assigned different tasks and as soon as the weather gets nicer a team of trappers will head in search of feral cats.

I was delighted when the Companion Animal Adoption Centres of Quebec (CAACQ) invited me to meet Mr. Bruce (pictured with me above). This was a small and intimate gathering at St. Laurent Borough Hall.  In attendance were community representatives interested  in the topic of animal control. Liberal Senator Francis Fox was the highest ranking politician in the room.  The CAACQ is headed by Johanne Tassé. The boroughs of St. Laurent and Verdun have cat bylaws and they were both represented. So were the cities of  Longueuil, Ste. Agathe, Val David, Morin Heights,  St. Marguerite and Plateau-Mont-Royal Borough of Montreal Councillor Piper Huggins (Projét Montréal). Montreal, in my opinion, remains a key player to getting the TNR issue higher on the public agenda. Last summer Pierrefonds-Roxboro Councillor Catherine Talbot attended my meeting. She is a  member of Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s party.

In Calgary, the mission of Animal & Bylaw Services,   is to "Encourage a safe, healthy, vibrant community for people and their pets, through the development, education and compliance of bylaws that reflect community values.” Their service includes: responding to Calgarians' concerns regarding municipal bylaws and provincial statutes; developing bylaws and educating the public; adopting cats and dogs; and partnering with citizens to create clean and healthy communities.

 The City of Calgary encourages responsible pet ownership through licensing, public education and enforcement. Licensing fees, not tax dollars, fund the following programs and services:

 • Reunite lost cats and dogs with their owners.
• Operate the Pet Drive Home program.
• Educate cats and dogs owners about responsible pet ownership. 
• Enforce the Responsible Pet Ownership bylaw.
• Shelter and feed lost cats and dogs in our vet-operated facility.
• Manage our animal adoption program.
• Offer school programs at no charge.
• Deliver public education programs.
• Run our volunteer animal socialization programs.
• Help neighbours resolve their animal related conflicts.
• Provide funding to veterinary clinics for emergency medical care for injured stray cats and dogs.
• Operate the no-cost spay and neuter program for the cats and dogs of eligible Calgarians.
• Provide medical care to adoptable cats and dogs in our state of the art clinic.
Calgary’s Animal & Bylaw Services advocates Responsible Pet Ownership based on the following four principles: License and provide permanent identification for pets; Spay or neuter pets.; Provide training, physical care, socialization and medical attention for companion pets; and Do not allow pets to become a threat or nuisance in the community.

To say that Bill Bruce is inspiring, well that is an understatement. “Every animal that ends up in a shelter or on the street is there because a human relationship failed them,” he  began. “Our goal is compliance: getting people to do it because it is the right thing to do. We encourage responsible pet ownership through  licensing, public education and enforcement.”

Bruce stressed  the importance of “engaging the stakeholders” by  educating the public. “ Education is the most powerful tool to change behavior,” he stated.

Bruce told us about the four principles of pet ownership:

 1. License and provide permanent identification form pets;
2. Spay or neuter pets;
3. Provide training, physical care, socialization and medical attention for companion pets;
4. Do not allow pets to become a threat or nuisance in the community.

 Today, Calgary has 49,500 licensed cats, which equates to 50 percent compliance according to an annual pet census Bruce conducts.  Cat licenses cost $10 if the feline was spayed or neutered and  $30 if not. The resulting revenue funds the state-of-the art Animal Services Centre Clinic, which, in turn, not only increases business efficiencies (for treating adoptable animals), but also subsidizes a no-cost spay-and-neuter policy for low-income Calgarians.

Calgary Animal Services has an annual budget of $5.4 million, generated not through tax dollars but through licence and penalty revenues. 

 The CAACQ

The CAACQ is an alliance of animal welfare organizations whose members have joined together in order reduce the number of companion animals killed in the Province of Quebec. Its goals are to  provide support in establishing new policies and improve existing practices for members of the CAACQ; educate the public on the importance of spaying and neutering; facilitate and promote the adoption option and responsible animal guardianship; and encourage municipal, provincial and federal governments to establish and enforce stricter  animal welfare laws.

Tassé established the  CAACQ  in 2008. After working for 10 years as a volunteer marketing and adoption-promotion manager for Animatch, she realized that despite all the efforts made by similar organizations, the number of animals in shelters was consistently high. She created the CAACQ in order to get to the source of the problem of animal overpopulation, and to implement cost-effective solutions for the well-being of animals. The CAACQ also wants to change the Quebec general population’s mind-set to make a better ethical choice and adopt animals in need of a home. A large number of healthy animals are killed every day and  adoption is the solution.

Here is a video of Bill encouraging Calgarians to adopt cats: