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2012-10-23 at 17:04

Animal services revamps pricing plans

By tbnewswatch.com
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THUNDER BAY -- The city's animal services is changing the way it does business with potential pet-owners, following approval of the new plan by City Council last night.


The Thunder Bay Animal Services shelter on Alloy Place has been facing overcrowding due to the number of people not spaying and neutering their animals. This has caused shelter officials to rethink their pricing system.

Using the Humane Society's cat giveaway as an example, the Thunder Bay Animal Services have lowered prices for young kittens and puppies by $100, and they've given supervisors the discretion to offer two-for-one deals when there's an over-population at the shelter.

The city's licensing Manager Ron Bourret says the changes are positive for everyone.

The price now ranges from $200 to $220 for cats and dogs of all ages, and pet-owners will also get a $100 voucher for spay or neutering the animal.

Supervisors will also have the option of cutting prices for older dogs or cats who may have medical problems. 

 

 

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Tbnewswatch.com(22)

Comments

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Only Me says:
Maybe if the price to spay or neuter your pet wasn't so high, More people may do it.
10/23/2012 5:28:36 PM
She says:
I think it would be a better idea if the animals were spade and nuetered before being adopted to the new owner. This is just going to be a vicious cycle. There has to be someway of getting a vet to do this at a reduced cost.
10/23/2012 5:48:25 PM
localdog says:
"The Thunder Bay Animal Services shelter on Alloy Place has been facing overcrowding due to the number of people not spaying and neutering their animals."

Unfortunately Ron himself has been partially to blame in this matter. Some of us knew the benefits of spaying and neutering 20 years ago, why it took him this long to get Animal Services on the bandwagon is a mystery. Same goes for humane society president Jack Remus. It was only in the last couple of years that both of these facilities started routinely spaying/neutering animals before adopting them out. Prior to that they were all contributors to the pet overpopulation problem.

Welcome to the 21st century, glad you finally made it.
10/23/2012 8:37:40 PM
ohnoyoudidnt says:
Maybe if the staff learnt to smile, and not to be such a miserable joy to try to deal with people would return there more often.
10/23/2012 10:07:23 PM
woof!! says:
The staff in there care deeply about the animals. I don't know who you've dealt with but any time I've had the dogcatchers come pick up strays they have been caring, pleasant and patient with the scared dogs. Hell, one of them spent most of his afternoon chasing a pig down Rockwood one day and a rooster the next.

The office staff may have their moments but how happy would you be working in a facility that is still having to see 10-12 cats make their final trip to the vet daily due to the irresponsibility of others? Given those circumstances I find them to be mostly a caring, dedicated group of people that try to do the best for the animals in their care.

On another note; it would be nice if this article had mentioned the efforts of KittyKare and New Hope Dog Rescue. Both of these organizations work to take the overflow of animals when the place is at capacity.
10/23/2012 11:45:28 PM
SomeGuy says:
When I got my dog from them 5 years ago they had him neutered for me at no cost. Some other organization may have paid for it though I'm not sure.

I wish more people would adopt a dog from one of these places instead of going out buying a dog from a breeder. The deserve a good home that wants them.
10/23/2012 11:27:44 PM
Sui Generis says:
I'm sorry, but when people can get a cat, or hundreds of them, for free off of Kijiji any day of the week, they aren't going to pay $200 for one. The same can now be said for dogs. Has anyone noticed how many registered purebreds are now available for free online?

And, of course, this all stems from overbreeding. The end result is going to be these agencies putting down more and more animals. By allowing your intact animals to breed (you know who you are), you are, in effect, killing these animals yourselves.
10/24/2012 12:26:33 AM
jimmyboy says:
$200 to $220 prices for cats and dogs of all ages...and 2 for 1 deals...seriously how many people do they believe will jump all over this anyway.???


If everyone is soooooooo very concerned about putting these animals down...why not offer them up for free to good homes....it is not like anyone would expect this service to be a profit centre of any kind....how could it possibly be...when the city cannot even run the Community Auditorium as a prime example on an annual basis to actually turn a profit.!

So we can subsidize concert goers...people who attend the Canada Games Complex...to the tune of hundreds of thousands of tax dollars...and we think as city administration, that with this new game plan...we are doing justice to these homeless cats and dogs....mmmmmm....Superior by Nature are we really.???
10/24/2012 1:02:19 AM
passlake says:
complex generally doesn't cost the city money. it pays for itself (staff, facilities, equipment, etc) through the user fees it collects.
10/24/2012 1:44:19 PM
buzzerd says:
So they have a problem of people not spay or neutering their animals and what do they do ? Well nothing. Even if they decided to just neuter the the females that would probably make a big difference and wouldn't be as expensive.
10/24/2012 8:32:48 AM
meta says:
The adoption fees are ridiculous! No wonder there is overcrowding ...who can afford to get a pet!
Drop the fee! think what the cost of caring,feeding, vets and euthanizing these animals costs.

Here is a perfectly good cost saving measure for our City.
10/24/2012 9:19:51 AM
localdog says:
If you can't afford a measly $200 adoption fee, you can't afford a pet, period. You won't be able to afford to have it vaccinated or spayed.neutered, and in the event your pet ever got sick or injured you won't be able to afford vet care. You'll feed it garbage food from the grocery store because that's all you can afford (If you don't care about your pets health you'll use the "any food is better than no food" argument here). If you're going to get a pet you should believe they deserve better than that. Plan ahead for the expense. If you're balking at $200, you can't afford a pet.

10/24/2012 11:19:42 AM
farmgal says:
They are only giving a voucher for spay and neuterigng. They should make sure all animals are spayed or neutered before they leave the shelter just as the Humane Society does.
10/24/2012 10:10:22 AM
bulldog says:
The humane society does NOT spay/neuter all animals before they leave. I personally know people who adopted unaltered adult pets from them.

If they have started spay/neutering, good for them. Animal services has spayed and neutered every pet 6months and over for the past year or so, and they still are. It's the pets that are too young that are being adopted with the spay/neuter rebate.
10/24/2012 11:04:45 AM
localdog says:
It's only in the last couple of years the humane society started acting responsibly. They couldn't afford to spay and neuter animals prior to that and as recently as 2010 they were still giving out refund vouchers with all the un-altered pets they adopted out. Animal Services now fixes most animals prior to adoption too, the vouchers are for kittens and puppies that are too young to be spayed or neutered at the time of adoption.
10/24/2012 11:27:54 AM
farmgal says:
When I got my cats from the Humane Society 3 years ago they would not let any be adopted until they were spayed or neutered. And the cost of that was built into the $210 it cost me for each one.
10/24/2012 3:13:25 PM
localdog says:
Maybe you have your dates wrong? Three years ago the shelter was without a manager and being seriously mismanaged by the board of directors who almost put it in to the poor house. They could barely afford to make payroll each month let alone spay or neuter every animal that walked out the door. Some animals were fixed when they could afford it, but many were adopted intact accompanied by a refund voucher. It was in the paper, people were complaining because they were not getting their refunds after submitting their voucher.

Here's a quote from Maryann K., humane society executive director, from a story dated March of this year:

"One of the things we’re doing right now we were never able to do before is trying to ensure that every animal that leaves this building is spayed or neutered before it goes,” Kleynendorst said.



That pretty much sums that up.
10/24/2012 8:26:32 PM
JIMMY2 says:
I completely agree with localdog, if you are choosing to buy a pet, you have to factor in all costs, spaying/neutering your pet is a benefit to you and your pet, along with proper grooming, feeding, etc. If you choose to get one off kijiji, just cause its free... that is your choice, knowing that there are all these animals sitting in cages with no loving home, your choice.
10/24/2012 3:45:40 PM
Buddy says:
We "fix" humans for free. Pets should be free too seeing as they receive better health care than we do as humans and get dressed up in those rediculous outfits by their owners.
10/25/2012 9:11:38 AM
K94ever says:
If we were to receive a invoice detailing just what it acually costs the health care system (which we acually pay for) to "fix" everything life throws at us you would see nothing is for free.
10/26/2012 9:02:44 AM
MASreader says:
To Only Me: It is comments like that that contribute to the overcrowding and abandoned pets. You want the price to be less to fix a pet? then you should not have one... I have two large breed dogs...both adopted and both FIXED and spare no expense when it comes to them...people will spend 10$ for a pack of smokes or $40 for a case a beer and wont fix their pets...NO EXCUSES...if you cant fix it you should not have one...JUST MY OPINION - A loving FOREVER home mum
10/25/2012 4:56:59 PM
twace says:
I want to know how we can get one of those mobile spay/neuter vehicles to our area? They seem to do the job for much less, if not free sometimes, when over crowding occurs.
The USA has them, don't we have them?
10/26/2012 8:58:35 AM
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