Hello Everyone,

During the past 3 years, the Spay/Neuter Bylaw Action Committee lobbied the municipal governments of the Greater Victoria area to enact a mandatory spay/neuter bylaw for cats.  Through their unwavering efforts, Val Boswell and Aileen Thomson were able to get the bylaw enacted in the Districts of North Saanich and of Central Saanich.   After the bylaws were enacted, the residents of North Saanich and Central Saanich sterilized their cats at no charge through the Greater Victoria Animal Crusaders’ spay/neuter one month long blitz.  This resulted in 131 cats being spayed/neutered. 

The Committee continued to carry its message to the municipalities of Esquimalt, Colwood, and View Royal after Val stepped down as Committee Chair and Aileen withdrew from the Committee’s activities.  To demonstrate support from their constituents, we created a petition for each municipality.  However, this was not enough, the two biggest challenges we faced was our inability to demonstrate a cat overpopulation problem existed and how the mandatory spay/neuter bylaw for cats would be enforced.  Councils were not swayed by the animal rescuers’ description of the cat population problem and the need to change our society’s attitude towards cats, they wanted evidence a problem existed in their municipality and how the mandatory spay/neuter bylaw would be enforced.  Although we were unable to get the Town of View Royal and Township of Esquimalt to vote in favour of such a bylaw, we created public awareness towards the need for spaying/neutering of cats.  Since December 2009, we have not heard back from the City of Colwood.  In recent discussions with some of the animal rescue organizations and browsing the animal rescue organizations’ websites, it appears the message is sinking in as we’ve noticed a decline in the availability of kittens and cats in the Greater Victoria area.

As the cat population appears to be declining and the enforceability of the bylaw in question, the Committee has decided to disband and work individually with the animal rescue organizations in improving the lives of our feline friends.  We would like to thank you for your support and wish you all the best in continuing the promotion of responsible ownership through the spaying/neutering of pets.

Sincerely,

Anna Becker, Virginia Bennett and Heather Gans
Spay/Neuter Bylaw Action Committee