Changes to Glanbrook Animal Control

Glanbrook Animal Control, will see some changes in 2011. The City of Hamilton provides an Animal Control service which includes picking up of lost or stray animals, dog licensing, emergency response to animals injured on the road, barking dog complaints, road kill pickup, dogs running at large complaints and poop & scoop complaints and a few other services as well.

The location for the City Animal Control is on Dartnall Road, just south of Rymal Road and they share the building with the SPCA. The City has also had 2 contractors which provided the animal control services for the Glanbrook Community and the Flamborough Community.

In the 2011 Budget, Council directed all staff to find savings and efficiencies in order to reduce the budget. In doing so, one area staff recommended change was in Animal Control. With recent restructuring in this department and re-organizing staff, Management of Animal Control felt that they were now able to provide the service to the Glanbrook Community using existing resources which would generate a $75,000.00 savings to their budget. Staff’s recommendation for Flamborough was to take the urban area in house, but retain a contracted out service for the rural area and their reasoning was because of the large geographical area and the distance from the Dartnall Road Building. Staff noted that the Dartnall Road location was adjacent to Glanbrook and saw servicing this area as something that made sense. During the budget process, Council agreed to make the recommended changes in order to obtain a $75,000.00 savings

Councillor Johnson had concerns with these changes, in discussions with both staff and Michelle Bain (the current animal control provider), it was felt that animal by-law control was better handled by City staff. However, Councillor Johnson felt that road kill and dogs running at large and emergency services etc were better handled by a contracted out service. As a result, this issue will be on the May 17th Agenda for the Planning and Economic Development Committee, which starts at 9:30am.