Not enough government support of animal shelters, says survey

A telephone survey conducted by a team of Memorial University researchers in St. John's confirms that governments do not support animal shelters.

The SPCA shelter in St. John's operates on half a million dollars a year.

$60-thousand of that total comes from the provincial government and the City of St. John's.

The remainder is scraped together through donations.

Kristy Bailey, SPCA St. John's shelter manager, said extra funding from government would not go astray.

"The projects that we'd like to work on include education and outreach type programs," Bailey said. "We'd like to spend more money veterinary care for the animals in the building."

According to the MUN survey, there's too big a gulf between municipal governments that consider stray pets a nuisance but don't want to pay for dealing with them, and non-profit shelters that shower them with love while being chronically underfunded.

"The more we're talking and sharing about what's working on our end, what isn't working on our end, can only help benefit the greater cause," Bailey said.

The survey suggests there should be either more public money for the shelters or more hands-on involvement by governments.

Approximately 2,000 animals go through the SPCA in St. John's each year.