Winnipeggers license an estimated 10% of city’s cats

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/10/2015 (3991 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Buy-in to Winnipeg’s voluntary cat licensing program has already exceeded modest expectations, but that hasn’t ruled out a future introduction of a zero-tolerance policy, the head of the city’s Animal Services Agency said.

To date, almost 15,000 cat licences have been purchased – topping projections of 10,000 for the first year of the program, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2015.

“We’re pretty happy,” said Leland Gordon, the agency’s COO. “We hope it progresses. I’m definitely proud and grateful of the people who stepped up in the community.

“It’s definitely good news.”

Licences cost $15 per for fixed cats and $50 for unfixed felines (which represent only a small fraction of licences). That translates into at least $225,000 in revenue collected so far under the program.

Half of the gross revenue will be dedicated to spay-and-neuter programs designed to lower the number of unwanted animals and the need for euthanasia. Gordon said that money will be dispersed at the end of the year.

The other 50 percent of revenue is incorporated into the ASA’s $3.1 million budget. (By contrast, 100 per cent of revenue from dog licences goes directly to the ASA. Another $904,000 is generated by property taxes.)

Zero-tolerance policy would increase licensing rates

It’s estimated that Winnipeg is home to approximately 150,000 cats (not including feral cats), so Gordon acknowledged significant room for revenue growth. However, the COO added that dog licences have been required in Winnipeg for almost 100 years and by 2009 there were just 35,000 licences issued, of an estimated population of 112,000.

Since a zero-tolerance policy on dog licences was enacted in 2011, the number of dog licences has risen to approximately 60,000.

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Gordon said there are no immediate plans to introduce a zero-tolerance policy for cat licences “but I can tell you that when we do, there will be a massive uptick in licences.”

For now, Gordon said the agency would prefer cat owners purchase licences of their own volition for the health of the overall cat population.

“It’s more of an educational phase this year,” he said. “It will pick up. This was Year One of the program.

“It took a hundred years for dogs, right? But at some point we need to. It’s not fair to have zero tolerance on dogs and not on cats.”

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Randy Turner
Reporter

Randy Turner spent much of his journalistic career on the road. A lot of roads. Dirt roads, snow-packed roads, U.S. interstates and foreign highways. In other words, he got a lot of kilometres on the odometer, if you know what we mean.

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