Download Sudbury Vet

Background
Approximately 10 years ago, the City of Greater Sudbury, acting on the
recommendations of the Animal Control Bylaw Advisory Panel, initiated a spay
neuter voucher program.
This program, still in effect today, provides a coupon to citizens of Greater
Sudbury to be used at the veterinary service provider of their choice. This coupon
allowed for a certain dollar figure towards the cost of a spay or neuter. Today the
figure is $115.00 towards a spay and $65.00 towards a neuter.
This program has a finite amount of money, approximately $50,000.00 in 2012,
and that amount is usually exhausted within a month of the beginning of the
program each year. This program is open to all citizens of the City regardless of
means. In 2012, there was approximately 170 dogs sterilized (110 spays and 96
neuters) and 385 cats sterilized (242 spays and 143 neuters).
Recent years has seen numerous agencies within and outside of the City of
Greater Sudbury petition the City for the establishment of a “low cost” spay
neuter clinic. Many of these agencies have declared that the cost of these
procedures fall outside the ability of Sudburians to afford them and that is the
reason why we have a so called pet population problem.
Perhaps the loudest agency in recent years has been the company that provides
the Animal Control Services to the City of Greater Sudbury. One must question
the sincerity of this request in particular. Is the request an altruistic concern to
the plight of the unowned pets in this city or, in fact, an attempt to have the
taxpayers assist in reducing operating expenses of the pound services?
Most recently the City has been approached by an American organization in
partnership with the OSPCA to establish a “low cost, high volume” spay neuter
clinic in the City of Greater Sudbury. According to local media reports, this clinic
would provide sterilization services to all residents of North Eastern Ontario. The
proponents say that the City of Greater Sudbury would save the $50, 000.00 per
year from its present program and would “only” be required to donate a surplus
building to the proponents to own and renovate in order to provide veterinary
surgical services.
The Justification:
The proponents of this option suggest that the cost of spay and neuter
procedures are too expensive and this is the root cause of pet overpopulation.
Unfortunately, this is an oversimplified and frankly a purely emotional attempt to
justify such a facility in a community that is more than adequately serviced with
ten fully accredited veterinary facilities.
The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies initiated a study into the concept
of pet overpopulation in Canada. This study, entitled Cats in Canada-A
Comprehensive Report on the Cat Overpopulation Crisis (Appendix 1) is accepted
by all members of the Federation (including the OSPCA) as well the Ontario
Veterinary Medical Association. This study is very clear that in Canada we have a
cat overpopulation problem. Cat overpopulation not dog overpopulation!
According to the Federation’s study over 80% of dogs, entering pound facilities
and shelters are reunited with their owners or are adopted into new loving
homes. The remaining percentage has behavioural issues, illnesses, or injuries
that prevent them from being adoptable. In cats, the redemption and adoption
figures are less than 50%.
Using pet (dog and cat) overpopulation as a justification for an all-encompassing
low cost spay neuter clinic is disingenuous at best and self-serving for some of the
proponents at worst in terms of taxpayer contributions to offset operating
expenses of the proponents.
In fact, the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association adopted 2011 as the Year of
the Cat in support of the Care for Cats Committee. A full year before the
definitive study proving an overpopulation of Cats in Canada, Ontario
veterinarians were ahead of the curve working to increase awareness in the
public of the cat overpopulation crisis.
There are numerous theories as to the reason why we have an overpopulation of
cats. Most, unfortunately, comes from the fact that many individuals do not pay
for a cat (when obtained as a pet – free to good home) and as a result tend not to
be willing to pay for medical care for the cats resulting in them being dropped off
down that proverbial rural or abandoned road. This results in a large population
of feral cats. This population undoubtedly explodes because they are uber
predators, able to survive the harshest climates provided food sources exist.
Many experts in the United States indicate that these facilities do not help in
significantly reducing the cat overpopulation problems as often the only cost
acceptable for many owners is no cost at all.
The main issue in this cat overpopulation problem is responsibility in pet
ownership. It is accepted that spay neuter clinics address only one aspect of pet
ownership – sterilization. It does not address nutrition, vaccinations, and other
preventive health care issues that are critically important to the overall health and
welfare of cats under regular veterinary care.
The Proposal
The Greater Sudbury Veterinary Association has met and has agreed to offer the
City of Greater Sudbury a proposal for its consideration that meets, in its opinion,
the needs of the taxpayers of Greater Sudbury without seeing the City subsidizing
the provision of veterinary care to all of Northeastern Ontario.
The Greater Sudbury Veterinary Association’s greatest concern is standards of
care. The axiom that guides the provision of veterinary care, as in human
medicine is “above all else, do no harm”. We all know that causing pain to
someone or something is causing harm. As people, we have the ability to
appreciate that in order to make our lives better (i.e. cure or treat an illness)
sometimes we have to endure some degree of pain. That pain is often managed
sometimes not completely but we understand and can rationalize the need for
the pain. Surgery causes pain. Our veterinary patients can not appreciate why
we are causing them pain in the performance of these sterilization procedures.
They have no ability to consent to the procedure and rely on us to be their
advocates. Pain management is critical to providing an acceptable level of
veterinary care. It should be multimodal and as complete as possible through
anaesthesia and analgesics before, during and after surgery so as to prevent as
much pain and discomfort to the pet as is humanly possible.
Performance of these procedures to this standard is expensive. Delivering
anaesthesia as safely as possible and the management of pain are two of the
most expensive components of any surgical procedure. It is the concern of the
Sudbury Veterinary Association that when facilities cut costs and increase volume,
standards are difficult to maintain and some standards of care may be
compromised resulting in these patients, who cannot understand why they are
being subjected to these procedures, being harmed by allowing them to feel pain.
The Sudbury Veterinary Association has concerns about the “low cost high
volume” model. In almost every industry model high volume and low cost usually
equates to low quality of service or workmanship. The time it takes to perform a
cat spay in high standard facilities from induction of anaesthesia to completion of
the surgery is at least 40 minutes. It involves veterinarians examining the patient
prior to surgery, administration of pre anaesthetic sedation and analgesics,
induction of anaesthesia, prepping of the patient for surgery and the surgery
itself. It involves veterinarian time and a registered veterinary technician to
administer medications, induce anaesthesia, and monitor and maintain the
patient during the surgery, administer medications during and after the surgery.
Post operatively there are technicians that are required to monitor the patient’s
recovery and prepare pain medications to be dispensed to the owner on
discharge. Then a veterinarian or a technician goes through a discharge
appointment with the owner at the end of the day. There does not seem to be
enough time to provide this level of care to 50 patients daily by one veterinarian
and a couple of support staff.
Recent data from the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association with respect to the
OSPCA facility in Newmarket suggests that only 35% of the owners presenting
pets to that low cost high volume facility have an existing VCPR (Veterinarian
Client Patient Relationship), meaning that 65% of the users of such facilities do
not have a veterinarian and are unlikely to bring their pets to a veterinarian on a
regular basis. This is interpreted to mean that local veterinarians are not
impacted significantly by these types of facilities and in fact supports the fact that
your local veterinarians are only concerned about the total health and welfare of
those patients owned by residents that may take advantage of such a facility.
This proposal is based on that initiated in Niagara Durham. The program in
Niagara Durham was in existence for 2 years and was a partnership between the
OSPCA and all of the veterinary facilities in the region.
It saw member facilities provide spays and neuters to cats of owners that met the
Farley Foundation means test (Appendix 2).
The Farley Foundation is a non-profit charity established by the Ontario
Veterinary Medical Association that provides funding to pet owners that meet
their means test for emergency veterinary care. It has distributed in excess of
$1,000,000.00 to date.
The Niagara Durham model saw individual cat owners pay $100.00 for a spay or a
neuter when they presented a coupon issued by the OSPCA after a successful
application process. This program was in place for 2 years and assisted the
owners of over 2000 cats get sterilization surgeries for their pets.
The program saw the veterinarians of the region remove their support after the
OSPCA and the Humane Alliance decided to open their own facility in direct
competition with the veterinarians of the region.
The model proposed by the SVA is very similar to that of the Niagara Durham
region. Sudbury veterinarians will provide cat spay and neuter services to
residents of the City of Greater Sudbury that present a coupon to their practices
for the service. This coupon would be issued by the City after the owner meets
the means test of the Farley Foundation (see Appendix 2). The cost to the pet
owner will be $100.00 for cat neuters and $125.00 for cat spay. Pet owners who
will qualify for this proposal must be residents of the City of Greater Sudbury who
meet the above means test.
The increase in the cost above the Niagara Durham program is a result of the
Sudbury Veterinary Association’s desire to ensure more than adequate pain
control is used on each and every patient.
The Rationale
The SVA feels that this proposal meets the needs of all concerned parties.
It assists the pet owner by ensuring the sterilization procedure is done to
acceptable standards in terms of anaesthesia and pain management, two areas of
concern that tend to be compromised when one attempts to increase volume and
reduce costs.
It also allows for contact between the pet owner and veterinary care team to
discuss other health care issues that may be of concern with that individual pet.
Something that low cost/high volume spay neuter clinics cannot do by the
regulations of the College of Veterinarians of Ontario (the governing body for
veterinarians in Ontario).
Most importantly it helps make pet ownership more affordable to that segment
of the population that studies have shown derive the most in terms of physical
and mental health benefits associated from pet ownership.
This proposal meets the needs of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies
by increasing access to veterinary health care and sterilization services to that
segment of the pet owning population that can least afford it thereby reducing
that source of the cat overpopulation problem in the City.
With respect to the City of Greater Sudbury and its taxpayers, it allows the City to
cease contributing $50,000.00 to its present program annually. These monies can
then be directed to other expenditures. In addition, it prevents the need for the
City to donate a surplus building for the proponents of the OSPCA/Humane
Alliance option to convert to a facility for the spay and neuter of pets in this city
when there already is 10 such facilities in existence in the City of Greater Sudbury.
That surplus building could then be sold on the open market generating more
revenue for the City than a donation of the asset will realize.
Most importantly, it will not see the taxpayers of Greater Sudbury subsidize the
provision of veterinary health care to people of northeastern Ontario who are not
taxpayers in Sudbury. In addition, the City would not be subsidizing the reduction
in the operation expenses of other businesses in the City such as the OSPCA
shelter or of the Pound service provider. In actuality, there would be no actual
direct cash outlay on the part of the City whatsoever.
Almost the entire cost of the proposal is being borne by the owners of the 10
veterinary facilities already in existence in the City of Greater Sudbury. These
facilities employ approximately 100 highly trained individuals that contribute
directly to the economy of this city through shopping, taxes etc.
The only requirement of the City is to administer the means test and issue the
certificates to pet owners that qualify under the terms of the means test of the
Farley Foundation.
This proposal has no actual limitations. As stated above, the present program
assisted owners sterilize 554 pets last year. This proposal may see an unlimited
number of cats being sterilized in a fashion consistent with the best practices of
veterinary surgery that is already being practiced locally (over 2000 cats over the
two years the program was in place in Niagara Durham). As long as the City
manages the means test and is willing to issue the certificates to citizens that
meet the test, the Sudbury Veterinary Association members will provide the
service to cat owners who present the coupons to the participating veterinary
service provider of their choice.
This Proposal is supported by the entire membership of the Sudbury Veterinary
Association which includes all of the small animal veterinary practices in Greater
Sudbury. The Hospitals include:
Barrydowne Animal Hospital
Baxter Animal Hospital
Cambrian Animal Hospital
Chelmsford Animal Hospital
Martindale Animal Hospital
Nor-Ont Animal Hospital
Lasalle Animal Clinic
Lockerby Animal Hospital
Val Caron Animal Hospital
Walden Animal Hospital
Appendix 1
The internet address below will bring you to the 69 page report entitled
Cats in Canada – A Comprehensive Report on the Cat Overpopulation
Crisis
http://publ.com/qjgtfZe
Appendix 2
The chart below appears on the Farley Foundation website and would need
to be modified to indicate that the Sudbury Veterinary Association Proposal
is restricted to cat owners only and must be residents of the City of Greater
Sudbury.
1. The Pet Owner Must Qualify for Funding
Pet owners must fall into one of the four categories to be eligible for :
Seniors
Receiving the Federal Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS)
Disabled individuals
Receiving the Ontario Disability Support Payment (ODSP), or
The Canada Pension Plan Disability Payment (CPP Disability)
Participants of OVMA’s
SafePet Program
Women at risk of abuse who are entering a registered women’s shelter in Ontario, and
who are participating inOVMA’s SafePet Program.
Pets in care facilities for
seniors
Pet is owned by the following types of facilities in Ontario:
Supportive Housing - For seniors who require minimal to moderate levels of personal
care and support to live independently.
Retirement Homes - Privately owned rental accomodations for seniors who require
minimal to moderate levels of personal care and support to live independently.
Long-term Care Homes - Designed for people who need the availability of 24-hour
nursing care, supervision or higher levels of personal care.
Participants of Ontario
Works
Individuals receiving financial assistance through the Ontario Works program.