Calm Before the Storm

Things are getting back to normal, whatever "normal" is around here. The office was "closed" for a couple weeks at the end of December, but we were still here for Cajun and Spice and to receive the mail. Now we're back to our regular schedule, and it's quiet, relatively speaking. I have a bad feeling this is the calm before the storm.

We're preparing for our upcoming annual audits -- our regular audits, not political party campaign audits -- and I'm certain that we'll soon be inundated with calls about cats, once all this snow melts.

In December, my colleague Jacqui attended a feral cat meeting at which she learned about the North American stray / feral cat situation. Our neighbours to the south have a very different way of handling the issue: they run highly organized, large scale "Trap, Fix, Return" days during which large numbers of cats are sterilized simultaneously. It's impressive, and one would think this would make a greater impact on the stray cat population, but their hard work has about the same results as the Toronto method of independant groups / people catching and steralizing one cat at a time.

We still advocate for the implementation of the techniques employed by the city of Calgary, which has the best run animal services program in North America, if not the world. To date no municipality has heeded our advice, and, to date, no municipality has cared for their city animals as well as Calgary. There are solutions to help these animals -- it's just a matter of finding city councils willing to listen and to act in the best interests of the animals.

If anyone has the time to talk to their city councillors about this issue, PLEASE speak up, on behalf of the animals. For more information on Calgary Animal Services, please click on the following link.

http://content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Hall/Business+Units/Animal+and+Bylaw+Services/Animal+Services/index.htm