Partnership

When I first started volunteering at Toronto Animal Services South and heard about the division of labour and the antagonism between TAS, Toronto Humane Society and the OSPCA, it didn't make any sense to me. It still doesn't - not entirely - and I'm guessing most people don't know or understand what the differences are and what that means for the animals caught up in the middle of it.

It goes something like this (I think). The OSCPA, or the Ontaria SPCA, used to be called the Ontario Humane Society and they are the provincial body which oversees animal welfare and cruelty laws and have the power to appoint and remove animal cruelty investigative policing powers. The OSPCA, in effect is the Humane Society for all of Ontario but in certain jurisdictions, like Toronto, they allow other organizations (and in Toronto that would be the Toronto Humane Society) to do similar animal welfare work under their guidelines by giving them an affiliate status and allowing certain employees to have animal cruelty policing powers. Last week, when the OSPCA started to investigate some questionable practices by the Toronto Humane Society, they suspended the licences of the three animal cruelty officers who worked at the THS.

The Toronto Humane Society is Toronto's largest animal welfare agency. It can take in animals that are owner surrendered and it can sieze animals that it feels are under threat of animal cruelty. It cannot pick up strays ie. it's not the dog catcher. It's now entirely charity run even though a few years ago, it had the city contract to be dog catcher as well. THS lost that contract and Toronto Animal Services was expanded to take over the role of dog catcher in the city of Toronto. Now you can see why Trow has always had a hate on for TAS. He probably views them as the competitor in his us vs. them brain.

Toronto Animal Services' mandate could be said to be protection of the public from animals and a few years ago, it could be argued, that's maybe all they really cared about. They were the pound. They were the dog catchers. Stray dogs or dogs which broke the by-laws (eg. noise) were taken and brought to TAS and if they weren't claimed within a few days, well, the outlook wasn't good. TAS did adoptions even back then but I'm not sure how much effort was really put into it.

Things are quite different at TAS today, at least at TAS South anyway (there are four TAS locations). It's still officially the pound but it's also transformed itself into a rescue where adoptions are given high priority. It's no longer about hauling in stray dogs, giving them a few days for their owners to show up and if no one does show up, being put down. Now, all dogs who are behaviourally and physically sound are put up for adoption or sent to a rescue. Even Pit Bulls, which in many other jurisdictions in Ontario, are simply killed by local animal control (just following Ontario's ignorant and cruel breed prohibition laws), are given a chance and if they pass assessment, they are shipped out of province, through a bully rescue, to be placed in a foster home.

Given this transformation of Toronto Animal Services, where now the philosophies of both TAS and THS with regards to the well-being of animals are more closely aligned, there's no reason why THS and TAS can't have a working partnership. In fact, it makes a lot of sense.

From the Globe and Mail article, What happens to the cats and dogs at the Toronto Humane Society?:

Mending bridges with other animal lovers and rescue groups should be a priority [for THS], said Liz White, director of Animal Alliance, a Toronto-based animal advocacy group.

“First of all, there needs to be co-operation between the OSPCA, the Toronto Humane Society and Toronto Animal Services,” she said.

Ms. White suggested a lack of co-operation has created inefficiencies among the city’s shelters. She put forth a working model in which TAS would be the front-line shelter taking in lost or abandoned animals, and the THS would acted as a “second-chance program” for animals that are more difficult to match with an adoptive family.

Toronto Animal Services has been open to the idea for a while now. They even invited the THS for discussions about working cooperatively but THS turned them down. That's too bad but I'm guessing it would've been hard anyway to form a relationship with someone who has temper tantrums and goes on screaming jags.

In Calgary, which has a very successful animal control/welfare program - arguably one of the best in North America, there is a strong partnership between Calgary Animal Services and Calgary Humane.

From The Calgary Herald:

"We have a very collaborative relationship. When we talk to other humane societies, they say we're the only ones they've heard of that have a positive working relationship with the city bylaw department," said Calgary Humane Society spokeswoman Lindsay Jones. "Other cities learn from us and the way we do things here."

Both the TAS and the THS are different sides of the same coin, that coin being animal welfare. There are people in both agencies which work hard for the good of the animals. The two agencies' responsibilities, one to the public, the other to the animals, may be different but still, many of their services are similar and have similar goals in mind. They both try to find good, permanent homes for pets, both rescue animals out of abusive and/or neglectful situations, both provide decent food, shelter and human contact for their animals, both have (or should have, anyway) outreach programs with other rescues and foster homes. With all these areas of convergence, a partnership between TAS and THS makes a whole lot of sense. Ideas can be shared. Responsibilities and kennel space more efficiently allocated.

It's time to throw down the knives and start working together. Unless Trow undergoes a psychological makeover, I'm guessing this can't be done until a new board and president are running the THS.