Recommendation: That on the recommendation
of the Managing Director, Development & Compliance Services and the Chief
Building Official, the following actions be taken with respect to the Animal
Welfare Services contract, recognizing the vision for animal services where
all pets have a caring, respectful and responsible home:
a) the submission from
Urban Animal Management Inc. operating as London Animal Care Centre (LACC)
for implementing animal welfare services for the City of London and their
submitted total annual cost for services of $2,103,993 excluding taxes BE
ACCEPTED; it being noted that the total annual budget shortfall of
$146,265 related to this contract will need to be included as part of the
2015 Budget submission to maintain existing service levels and that the
budget shortfall for the last six months of 2014 will be funded through
one-time funding sources;
b) the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to
undertake all administrative acts which are necessary in connection with this
contract;
c) the approval
hereby given BE CONDITIONAL upon the Corporation entering into a
formal contract or issuing a purchase order relating to the subject matter of
this approval;
d) the
following enhanced animal care strategies BE ENDORSED;
i)
an enhanced service for additional park
patrols to encourage responsible pet ownership and the licencing of dogs at
the off leash dog parks;
ii)
an enhanced veterinarian services model with a
focus on feral cat spay/neuter, microchipping, and medical triage;
iii)
an enhanced model of animal care focusing on
implementing a City Cat Adoption Centre;
e) the following annual operating
and one-time capital costs for the enhanced animal care strategies BE SUPPORTED
and BE REFERRED to the 2014 Budget approval process:
i)
$375,776 operating and $700,000 one-time
capital for:
A)
$50,776 in annual operating for enhanced
services related to additional park patrols;
B)
$125,000 for annual operating costs for a
veterinarian; and $300,000 one-time capital cost for the purchase of a mobile
building, product and equipment;
C)
$200,000 for annual operating costs for the
cat adoption centre; $400,000 one-time capital cost for the purchase of a mobile
building and equipment;
ii)
$50,000 annual contribution to a reserve fund
to be created to fund additional off-leash dog parks;
f) a public
participation meeting BE HELD in 2014 to consider the following amendments to
the Animal Control and Dog Licensing and Control by-laws: No person shall
keep in any dwelling unit more than six of any combination of dogs and cats
with the number of dogs being limited to no more than three; except that any
person who, on the date of the passing of this by-law, was lawfully keeping
more than six of any combination of dogs and cats may keep those dogs and
cats until they have deceased or are otherwise been removed from, or have
left the dwelling unit; and further that new citizens to the City of London
who produce proof of a current valid licence for a dog/cat from another
municipality may continue to have that same animal licensed annually within
the City of London for the duration of the life of the animal so long as it
resides with same registered owner(s);
g) a public
participation meeting BE HELD in 2014 to consider by-law amendments allow
newborns to be exempt from licensing and registration requirements for a
period of six months after birth for the purposes of promoting spay/neuter
responsibilities;
h) a public
participation meeting BE HELD in 2014 to consider an Animal Fostering By-law
to include regulations intended to protect the health and safety of fostered
animals and to allow registered fosters to temporarily house up to ten
animals with a maximum limit of four dogs at any one time;
i) an animal
microchipping program BE IMPLEMENTED as a key component of the enhanced
veterinarian services model noting that microchipping is a proven tool to
promptly reunite lost animals with their guardians;
j) the Trap,
Neuter, Release (TNR) program BE ENDORSED as a successful program to address
the growing feral cat population;
k) local
businesses and retailers BE ENCOURAGED to participate in the “License to $ave
“ program in an effort to encourage and maintain companion animal licensing;
l) a barn
cat program BE ENDORSED as a positive program to address solutions for
healthy non-adoptable outdoor cats entering the animal shelter;
m) the first
principle of “no kill” and an open shelter policy, with continuous
improvement to obtain a live release of 90% by no later than year 4 of the
contract BE ADOPTED as the City’s goal for moving towards an animal welfare
model focusing on animal care; it being noted that shelter statistics will be
released monthly on the City’s web site and that the Civic Administration will
report annually to Council on the statistics and any recommended program
changes and/or funding requests;
n) consideration
BE GIVEN to initiating discussions on creating partnerships towards
the development of a joint venture multi-use animal welfare facility to
include centralized shelter, adoption, education and enforcement services;
o) the Civic
Administration BE DIRECTED to review and report back on the potential
implementation of mandatory spay/neuter;
p) the
following delegation requests BE REFERRED to the public processes noted in
parts f), g) and h), above:
·
delegation request – F. Morrison
·
delegation request – D. Fortney
·
delegation request – M. Robertson
·
delegation request – D. Ennis
·
delegation
request and clause 1 of the 1st Report of the Animal Welfare Advisory
Committee – V. VanLinden;
it being noted that the Community and
Protective Services Committee heard the attached presentation from O.
Katolyk, Chief By-law Enforcement Officer, with respect to this matter. (2013-F18)
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