The strangest thing that Sharon MacKeil has seen turn up on her doorstep was a couple holding a milk pail full of puppies. They had discovered the eight two-week old animals abandoned in a forested area in Ottawa. “We called them ‘the bucket puppies’,” MacKeil said, “It was just sheer luck that they were out walking and found them”.
MacKeil is the president of the Bytown Association for Rescued Kanines (or B.A.R.K, for short), a registered charity and rescue foundation in Ottawa that helps find foster homes for abandoned or stray animals. She said that the ‘bucket puppies’ are one of the rarer rescues that has been brought to the shelter, but certainly not one of the first.
Stray or abandoned animals are one of the many reasons Ottawa bylaw officers get calls to go out into the field. According to 311 Service Request data from the City of Ottawa, the number of animal complaints in the city averaged almost 3000 in the June to August period of 2013 and 2014.
Source: City of Ottawa 311 Service Request data June-August 2013
Source: City of Ottawa 311 Service Request data June-August 2014
“We also often get complaints for dogs at large, people not picking up feces and dog bites,” said Eric Boivin, a bylaw enforcement supervisor at the City of Ottawa. He said that the busiest period is between April and October, when the weather is warm and more people are outside with their pets.
Rideau-Vanier was the ward with the highest number of complaints, with 226 complaints in the summer of 2013 and 214 for the same time period in 2014.
Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury had one idea why his ward might have higher animal complaints. Last summer, Riverain and Richelieu Parks adopted an off-leash policy. “Some residents aren’t used to the new policy yet, and they call 311 to complain about dogs roaming,” said Fleury.
The warm nights of summer can result in another problem.
Frisky, unsterilized pets increase the chance of animal complaints as they are more likely to roam and have multiple litters. This increases the number of stray animals and abandoned litters in the city.
“We have a bit of a problem with education and people not spaying or neutering their pets,” Mackeil said, often due to the price tag. In its 2013 report, The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies stated that the number of unsterilized animals taken into shelters can indicate the trend in society. Only three to five per cent of strays had been spayed or neutered, according to the report.
B.A.R.K helps foster over 100 dogs per year. The website for the Ottawa Humane Society (OHS) says it takes in over 10,000 animals per year.
OHS is the main partner with the City of Ottawa in dealing with complaints of a stray, abandoned or mistreated animal. If the animal appears abandoned or lost, the society’s “Lost and Found” team attempts to contact the owner. If the owner can’t be found or doesn’t want to pick up their pet, the society holds the animal for three days and then puts them up for adoption.
Ontario has the highest number of humane society and SPCA shelters in Canada, according to the CFHS report. Over 85 per cent of animals in shelters are strays or animals that have been given up by their owner.