City of Edmonton, four employees charged in feral cat deaths

The City of Edmonton and four employees have been charged with regulatory offences under the Animal Protection Act after three feral cats died in May during a pilot program that has since been suspended.

The charges were laid by the Alberta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the city said Thursday in a news release.

The three cats were takenfrom the city's Animal Care andControl Centre to another city facility on May 18 as part of the pilot program, which was intended to provide homes for feral cats. The cats diedwithin one dayof being moved, the city said.

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The program was immediatelysuspended and the city reported the deaths to the Edmonton Humane Society.

The city said it conducted a comprehensive internal review and referred the matter to the AlbertaSPCAto conduct an investigation.

"The staff at the Animal Care and Control Centre care profoundly about animals and their welfare," said David Aitken, the city's branch manager of community standards. "Our staff had the best of intentions in looking for a new way to help unadoptable feral cats and provide them with a safe place to live.

"There was no intent to harm these animals. This incident has been devastating to our employees and we are doing everything we can to support them while taking steps to ensure this does not happen again."

In a separate news release, the Alberta SPCAsaid it conducted "a rigorous investigation" after receivinga complaint from the public in July that three cats in the care of the city's Animal Care and Control Centre had suffered distress and died. Nine charges have been laid,it said.

The City of Edmonton faces a single charge under the Animal Protection Act Section2(1.1). The fourindividuals, who were all employees of the Animal Care and Control Centre at the time, facetwo charges each under the Animal Protection Act, under Secton2(1.1) and section 2.1.

The first court appearance on the charges is scheduled for Dec. 12 in Edmonton provincial court.

City has 65,000 feral cats

Edmonton has about 65,000 feral cats, the city said. Most have little or no human contact and many areaggressive. About 800 feral cats are taken each year into the ACCC shelter, where many are eventually euthanized.

Under the pilot program launched in March 2018, the cats were spayed or neutered and medically cleared, thentransferred to other city facilities with warehouses or storage yards. The cats were given food, water andshelter with the hope that would act as "mousers" to help keep rodent populations under control, the city said.

Thirty-three cats were successfully placed during the program's first three months, the city said.

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