Winnipeg's cat licensing program draws criticism after 1st year

One year after the city implemented a mandatory cat licensing program, local cat advocates say the program has done little to combat the city's stray and feral cat population.

As of Jan. 1, 2015 the city began charging $15 to license fixed cats, and $50 dollars for intact felines. The program was brought into effect with the promise that 50 per cent of the funds raised would go toward affordable spay and neuter programs for cats.

• Winnipeg pet owners have to license their cats come 2015
• Winnipeg cat licence sales reach 13K in first few months

The city brought in $264,322 and sold a total of 22,461 licenses for the first 11 months of last year.December license sales are not yet fully counted.

Of that money, half went into the city's FIXIT program, a grant-based program which enablesorganizations to apply for funding to run low-cost spay and neuter programs. The program began accepting applications lastAugust.The only one to applywas the Winnipeg Humane Society, whichreceived $20,250.

That leaves more than$100,000 on the table.

Advocacy groups refuse to apply for funds

Leland Gordon, Chief Operating Officer at Winnipeg'sAnimal Services Agency,saysthe money will be applied to future FIXIT applications. However,CBC spoke to threeshelters who say they won't apply for funding, in part because of the conditions placed on applicants and disagreements over how the money can be used.

Lynne Scott, executive director at Craig Street Cats, an organization that deals strictly with stray and feral cats, says the city requiresorganizations applying for funds to publicly endorse licensing, something she's not prepared to do.

"We just do not believe that cat licensing will have any positive benefit for cats in Winnipeg," said Scott.

Gordon saysthatthestipulation is put in place in order to promote compliance with the law.

"For a group to say they don't want to support cat licensing, but want the proceeds of cat licensing, that's not [fair]," said Gordon. "At the end of the day we need groups to support cat licensing in order to generate revenue for this program and to protect people's cats."

Scott also says Craig Street'sexisting program targetingstray and feral cats wouldn't qualify even if itdid apply for funds.

"The funding is intended to go to programs that don't already exist. It's specifically targeted for low-income pets, not for feral cats," she said.

Scott says there are approximately 100,000 stray and feral cats in Winnipeg that the city's current programs are not helping.

But Gordon says the city is open to hearing any ideas and doesn't rule out programs for strays.

"Programs involving owned cats must target low-income participants. There's nothing in [theapplication] which says programs must only target owned cats," he said.

AileenWhite, Director of Strategic Communications at the Winnipeg Humane Society, says that havingFIXIT funding availablegoes a long way to help create new spay and neuter programs.

"We had applied for other funding and that fell through this year so we were really lucky to be able to rely on theFIXITgrantto make a low cost spay and neuter program happen this February," said White.

The new program, which has not yet been announced, will go even further than theexistingSNAP program at WHS that seesparticipantsget their pet spayed or neutered for as little as $25.

White says it's too early to tell if the licensing program is making an impact on stray and feral cat populations.

"Not enough time has passed for us to be able to really verify that. What I'm hoping cat licensing will do is bring a greater responsibility towards cats, where catsare no longer perceived as a disposable pet," said White.

Licenses discourage participation in spay and neuter programs

Claudia Allen, Director of Winnipeg Lost Cat Alert Facebook page, says programs that have a built in cat license, such as the SNAP program at WHS, actually discourage low-income pet owners from using it because it means being registered with the city.

She says the fear of receiving a fine in the future if they don't renew the license is to blame.

"They are very afraid of fines. If they can't afford the $15 for a cat every year, they're not going to be able to afford a $250 fine," said Allen.

Gordon says the point of offering a built in cat license for the first year was to get more cats fixed, and toencourage compliance with the law.

"It was not so that we would have this data base, and years and years from now we can start going door to door trying to get people's $15," Gordon said."At the end of the day cat licensing is the law, so if people choose not to get a cat license, at some point in the future which hasn't been established yet, we will be going to zero tolerance to cat[licenses] just like we have zero tolerance to dog[licenses]... People have to follow the law," he said.

Cat licenses don't help lost cats get home

Scott says that because Animal Services does not take in lost cats, and they are directed to the Humane Society, it's faster and more efficient to trace a cat with a microchip or tattoo. Something that any licensed cat would already have.

Allen says that when it comes to reuniting lost cats with owners, cat licenses do little to actually help.

"Right now it's not playing a huge role. It's permanent identification and microchips."

WLCAis not a registered charity and is not eligible to receive funding, but deals with a large number of lost, found, and stray cats across the city. Last year WCLA had nearly 1000 cats reported to them.

She says in the last year she has only had fiveinstances where a cat was reunited with an owner because it hada license.

The city says 133 cats were reunited with owners in 2015 because they were licensed.