I’ve blogged about Bill Bruce and the City of Calgary before, but this video although nearly two hours long, is a must see, as every word of it is pure genuis.
Bill Bruce is the Director of Animal and Bylaw Services at the City of Calgary, whose animal control department has achieved a +90% level of dog licencing compliance. Using the revenue from pet registrations they are able to run an open admission, self-funding shelter which saves 82% of cats and 94% of dogs… and they’ve done it without mandatory desexing, without breed specific legislation and without pet number limit laws.
Recognising that animal management’s core business is “returning pets to owners” and calling its dog licences ‘a ticket home’, if a pet is found wandering in Calgary and is registered, it will be taken home without being impounded. Calgary’s phenomenal success comes from offering a high level of service to pet owners who in turn see licensing as something of value to them and their pets.
However, it didn’t start off this way. Originally the city adopted the popular ‘heavy-handed, enforcement’ model. With extensive policing they were able to get dog licencing compliance up to around 80% but, forced to hammer people each renewal year to get them to comply, it was expensive and hard to maintain.
Understanding people
Calgary now works with it community, rather than trying to punish it into compliance. They key, says Bill Bruce, is studying people;
90% of people, sometimes 95%, will comply with things they agree with, understand and feel consulted on.
Less than 30% of us ‘do what we’re told’
The goal is to achieve that level of voluntary compliance where people willingly licencing their dog. You’re not chasing it, you’re becoming more efficient, your revenue is up and then you can invest those dollars back into service that ads value, not investing in chasing people down.
By engaging pet owners whose pet has escaped in a dialogue about why it happened, future problems can be avoided. And with dogs going straight home rather than be impounded, shelter overcrowding is reduced.
Making it easy for people
The advantages to near universally registered dog population are obvious;
– Enables animal services to quickly reunite missing pets with their owners
– Identifies that a lost animal has a caregiver
– A licenced animal is only one phone call away from going home.
Without pet limit laws, breed specific laws and mandatory desexing Calgary removed hurdles to compliance with licencing and the need for people to ‘hide’ their dogs and cats from the city. They also make it easy to register a pet and keep it registered – renewals sent out annually and can be paid online, in person or through a 24hr payment telephone hotline. They also follow up on non-payments with a friendly phonecall from their office.
Supporting responsible ownership
They have 138 off-leash areas, patrolled by animal management officers on bikes spruiking responsible pet ownership – even giving out free dog pooh bags! Through this positive dialogue with owners, they are able to take on the role of educator; correcting myths and removing misconceptions about animal control. This engagement has helped develop ‘social capital’ which sees the whole community care about animal welfare, helped them develop into knowledgeable pet owners and become “partners in compliance”.
Positivity and positive re-enforcement
Instead of putting money from licencing into government coffers (just another tax) it is spent on caring for pets in the community. The revenue stream from dog licences covers the $4.2 million dollar operating budget of the shelter. While funds from their new cat licencing program (which deliberately excludes unowned cats, allowing for TNR), are being put towards a community vet clinic which will offer free pet desexing for those who can’t afford the surgery (an estimated 8,000 – 10,000 surgeries per year). People like the idea that their money is going to help less fortunate pets and want to support the program and they are at 45% compliance without any enforcement of the cat licencing program (they simply can’t process any more applications).
They use positive media to tell their community that they are doing a great job “you guys are the most responsible guys anywhere!”, focusing on the excellent statistics the community have achieved.
The staff in the animal control department at the City of Calgary are happy and enjoy coming to work because they’re having success. The change in public perception from ‘dog catcher’ to ‘community support’ has removed barriers between the department and their community. Instead of stray animals being killed (and compassionate people keeping lost pets, rather than dropping them at the shelter) Calgary proudly promotes the fact their shelter is low kill, because so many animals go home.
The animal control process
If the pet can’t be taken straight home it will be delivered to the shelter. A photo of the pet is up on the website 15 mins after arrival, helping owners to locate their lost pet. Convenient opening hours help owners collect their animals
Having a good income stream from pet registrations, means great resources in the shelter. Excellent ventilation and individual cat kennels ensure flu isn’t spread and a high tech waste management system has meant no parvo outbreaks. Calgary boasts that the shelter has no smell, is very quiet and the animals are relaxed. Dangerous dog management kennels allow dogs to be moved without poles.
If an animal is not collected, its desexed vaccinated and moved out of the shelter to an off-site adoption centre.
Dogs with issues (slight dog aggression, food aggression or whom need to recover from surgery), go to specially trained foster homes who help rehabilitate the pet. They have 220 of these homes.
Feral cats are managed by a group who has ‘secret’ colonies and carers. Dogs who are aggressive go to a sanctuary. The breeders of purebred animals are contacted to see if they can take the pet for rehoming.
Calgary also work with all stakeholders in the community, including local humane societies and cat rescue/TNR groups. By sharing the load, focusing on each groups strengths and sharing the successes, a truly compassionate animal control system has been created, with an emphasis on saving every life.
How can your community have the same level of success?
Even with a machine gun question and answer session at the end of his talk, not once does Bill Bruce lose his passion for the positive. He believes he has the answer. And judging by his results, he may just be right.
More about Calgary
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My compliments and heartiest congratulations all of Calgary that have made animal-welfare groups throughout the world proud,certainly a move should be made for certain counties and states that are not as forward thinking.
Keep up the Great Work.
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