The Revelstoke & District Humane Society, unhappy that the Columbia Basin Trust’s Community Initiatives Program refused its request for a grant, warned Council that, as a consequence, the city could see an increase in the number of cats and dogs that are not spayed or neutered.
The RDHS had sought a $10,000 to underwrite most its planned $12,000 Low Cost Spay/Neuter Program. The RDHS has received $1,000 from the Community Foundation to help it underwrite the program but until it can find other grants it has been forced to put it on hold.
RDHS director Llewanda Halldorson told Mayor David Raven and Councillors the agency has seen an increase in the number of puppies and kittens offered for sale in recent months.
“We have been very disconcerted by the number of kittens and puppies on the Stoke List,” she said when the RDHS presented Council with their annual update.
Halldorson said the RDHS fears many of those animals will not be spayed or neutered and may even be abandoned by their owners when they either tire of them or decide to move. Though cruel, this is not that unusual. Last year, the RDHS rescued a dozen kittens that been tossed on the side of Highway 23S. (Click here to read that story)
The RDHS operates on a shoestring and had been counting on a CBT grant so it could offer a low-cost spay/neuter program for low-income families. While that may seem like a no-brainer, the agency was — to its directors’ immense surprise and dismay — turned down.
The reason?
The judges who review the CIP grant requests were apparently afraid that any kind of means test to identify legitimate low-income families would violate their confidentiality.
As a result of this decision low-income families who have pets that are not spayed or neutered have to shell out the full price of the procedure.
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The Revelstoke Health Services’ Caregiver Support Group will meet twice this summer — on Friday July 27 and Friday August 24.
A statement from Community Care Social Worker Tuulikki Tennant said the meetings are scheduled to be held from 11 am until noon in the Macpherson Room at the Community Centre.
For more information please call 250-837-2131, ext. 204.
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The Bear Aware Program has written to City Council expressing its opposition to any attempt by Council to permit backyard chicken coops.
“Our data show that chickens and their food are an attractant to bears,” Bear Aware Coordinator Sue Davies said in a letter to Council.
She said that between 2008 and 2011 there were 16 reports in Revelstoke and the Columbia Shuswap Regional District of bears attracted to chicken coops and five bears destroyed because of their interest in backyard chickens.
“Revelstoke Bear Aware does not support the keeping of backyard chickens,” Davies wrote.
Click here to read Bear Aware’s 2011 Annual Report.
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City Council has unveiled a list of major goals it would like to accomplish this year.
They include:
- More efficient delivery of City programs;
- Improved fiscal policies;
- An operations review;
- Continued infrastructure protection; and
- Continued efforts to better communicate its policies and programs to the public.
Click here to read the full list.
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The City has released its 2011 Water Report, which contains everything you can imagine about our water and the way it’s delivered.
Click here to access this report in PDF format.
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