The Regional District of Nanaimo's animal control services has been busy dealing with a high volume of aggressive dog cases in the last five years.
This was reflected in a report presented by Lisa Grant, manager of planning and development at Electoral Area Services Committee meeting on Nov. 7.
It was the RDN board that requested the report last April to have the Animal Control Service and associated contracted service reviewed to determine how hours are tracked and allocated for each service area, costs apportionment, outcome of each call for service and metrics regarding response time in-person and callbacks.
The report showed that in the last five years, Coastal Animal Services, hired by the RDN to deal with animal control in the region, responded to more than 1,500 calls and spent 71 per cent of the time dealing with aggressive dogs and dogs at large, which Grant pointed out are given higher priority due to the increased risk to public safety.
"They are considered complex files with aggressive dogs being the most complex and taking a significant amount of time and resources when we have those issues and also requiring immediate responses as well because of the public safety issues," said Grant.
The work provided by the animal controller is a complaint-driven service. They record calls for service for each electoral area and maintain separate files for each aggressive dog or dog at large incident. This allows the pattern of repeat offences to be tracked effectively.
Most of the calls in the District 69 region came from Electoral Area F (Coombs, Hilliers, Errington, Whiskey Creek, Meadowood) and Area G (French Creek, San Pareil, Little Qualicum, Englishman River). In the last five years, there were 100 aggressive dogs and 157 dogs at large cases received from Area F while in Area G there were 74 and 95, respectively, during the same period of time.
Grant said the animal control workers do provide voluntary surrenders, education around animal husbandry, tips on how to manage an aggressive dog and teach people to be a good dog owner.
"They have been gaining voluntary compliance," said Grant. "We haven't had any court-ordered surrender of dogs for five years. They've been quite successful in avoiding those fees."
Among the challenges they faced currently is the noted increase in dog owners in the region, lack of knowledge in dog behaviour, increased emergence of guardian-type breeds or bully breeds and other emerging issues such as the wolf-dog incident in Area F, which Grant said staff spent a significant amount of time trying to capture live.
CAS also provides dog licensing and provide a place to house pets temporary during an emergency evacuation or disaster. Their facilities can handle not only dogs but also cats, different kinds of livestock and reptiles.
The calls for service can vary from area to area and the cases also fluctuates during the five-year span said Grant. Options were presented to the EASC that included maintaining the status quo and not making any changes to the service and budget.
The second option is to apportion costs in the agreement with the animal controller based on the five-year averaged of calls. The third is to base is on the percentage of calls, using the five-year average, to be implemented over a four-year period beginning in 2026. And the last option is to require each service area to pay one-third of the animal control service agreement, estimated to be $67,333.33 each, regardless of actual data within each service area.
The report was received for information and no recommendation was presented at this time.
