District unleashes K-9 control

By Scott NeufeldThursday, July 6, 2006 http://www.dailycourier.ca/article_339.php

After sinking their teeth into the issue of animal control in the regional district, North Okanagan board members voted in favour of giving K-9 Animal Control Services a five-year contract worth $634,000.However, the vote was not without some debate as a few directors were unhappy with way the contract was dealt with. Regional director and Vernon councillor Patrick Nicol said that the contract should have been publicly tendered to give other organizations a shot at landing the lucrative deal rather than simply handed to K-9.“The SPCA indicated that they wanted to be alerted when the contract was up so that they could bid,” he said. “Which is why I believe this motion is not a good one.”Nicol said that the SPCA president had been eager to submit a proposal at a meeting in January, but the SPCA was not told the contract was available. Winning such a contract would have helped volunteer societies like the SPCA and Vernon and District Animal Care Society to earn some extra money for their programs to spay and neuter strays, Nicol said.“I think other groups are just as interested,” he said. “Whoever has the contract survives; whoever doesn’t has difficulty.”Earlier this week Heather Pettit of the Animal Care Society said that her organization had expressed interest to the regional district to provide animal control services. However, she said that they never received any feedback about their proposal.Though she wasn’t allowed to vote on the matter because her area wasn’t directly affected, director and Spallumcheen mayor Lorna Bissell spoke in favour of giving K-9 the contract. She said her town has nothing but good things to say about the services that K-9 has provided.In addition, Bissell said that the mandate of the SPCA is such that it would not function well at providing good animal control service.“From what I know of the SPCA I don’t know if they could handle this type of job,” she said. The district’s general manager of community services Michael Stamhuis agreed that K-9 seemed to be better suited to animal control than the SPCA. He added that no other groups had expressed interest in the contract.“Essentially animal control is protecting people from dogs,” he said. “(The SPCA) mandate is to protect dogs from people and it’s hard to reconcile that.”Director and Vernon councillor Pat Cochrane said that it would be unfair if the district were to ask for proposals now that the K-9 bid was a matter of public record.“I don’t think it’s fair for one of the proponents put a proposal out in the open,” he said.The agreement is in effect until the end of 2011 and includes a provision requiring K-9 to build a $60,000 impoundment facility for the district next to the current SPCA site.