St. Catharines vs. the Lincoln County Humane Society

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There’s a standoff tonight between the City of St. Catharines and the Lincoln County Humane Society. Last night city council issued an ultimatum to the SPCA, that if it doesn’t allow members to vote, it will pull a half million dollars in funding. The Humane Society is vowing that no matter how tightly it’s squeezed for cash it’s not going to change its policies.

Every month the Lincoln County Humane Society in St. Catharines picks up close to 300 stray and some injured animals but by the fall that service may come to an end. Last night St.Catharines city council gave the shelter an ultimatum allow members to vote or it will hire another animal control service. Even with the threat of losing $500 000 in funding, the Humane Society is not okay with members who can vote.

“It’s something the board is not willing to do because we are a private contractor and we supply the city a service, if they don’t like the service they can get a new contractor.” Kevin Strooband from the Lincoln Humane Society.

The dispute over voting began 2 years ago, Kevin Strooband says animal activists demanding a “no kill” shelter were trying to seize control from the board. They thought the kill rate in St. Catharines was too high, Strooband says since then they’ve slashed adoption fees for cats and the euthanasia rate has plummetted.

The Humane Society will continue to investigate animal cruelty cases and people will still be able to adopt animals from this shelter. The question for the public in all of this is what will happen to their stray and injured pets. Would they even think to call a Humane Society outside of St. Catharines for their lost animals.