Let's Clone Calgary's Animal Control

I felt as though I had been living in the Dark Ages when I heard Calgary's top Animal & Bylaw Services officer, Bill Bruce, speak about his city's progressive animal control program at Best Friends’ No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas last year. Calgary’s Responsible Pet Ownership bylaw is based on four principles: License and provide permanent identification for pets; spay or neuter pets; provide training, physical care, socialization and medical attention for companion animals; and do not allow pets to become a threat or a nuisance in the community. Public safety has been greatly enhanced because of its enactment and enforcement, and by following the bylaw’s principles, Calgary has earned accolades for controlling aggressive-dog incidents and reducing bites.

In 1985, when the city's population was only 600,000, the bylaw department received 1,938 complaints of aggressive-dog incidents, including 621 bites. City officials decided to crack down on reckless owners and dangerous dogs. However, they didn't resort to panic policy-making by outlawing a breed of dog, as Ontario had done. Instead, they used a problem-oriented approach that focused on a dog's behavior. Strong, breed-neutral legislation was enacted, and the city’s bylaw officers embarked on an extensive public education program. Last year, despite a burgeoning population of more than 1 million, bylaw officers dealt with only 424 aggressive-dog incidents, including 159 bites.

Calgary's track record is unparalleled on the continent. So what makes the animal control program in Canada’s third-largest city work?

At the conference, Bruce enumerated several factors:

1. He instructs his bylaw officers to get out of their trucks and talk to people, much like the beat cops in community-oriented policing. 
2. He prefers to hire folks who have a background in criminal-justice and mediation training.
3. The standard of animal control in the U.S. — the control stick — is not the preferred method of dog restraint for his officers. By contrast, his officers attempt to calm the dog down and get it on a leash, even though it might take longer than using a control stick.
4. If a dog is found running at large, it isn't taken directly to the shelter. The officers instead try to figure out where the dog lives through its license and take it home. Only as a last resort does the dog ever enter the shelter.

Such an approach seems unbelievable to those of us used to U.S. practices.

And, surprise, Calgary's citizens support these humane efforts. Calgary’s licensing rate for dogs is more than 90 percent. The Animal and Bylaw Services department actually makes money, unlike the majority of animal-control facilities in the States. Because of this, licensing fees — not tax dollars — fund the department’s volunteer, public education and animal adoption programs, as well as the operation of its animal shelter and its new low-cost spay/neuter clinic, where low-income pet owners can get their animals sterilized for free.

Humane advocates interested in reforming local animal control should lobby for their cities and counties to clone Calgary's methods. It could save animal lives, enhance public safety and save tax dollars.

Photo Credit: City of Calgary