Animal Welfare
Rivermont’s animal shelter has run above capacity for nine of the last ten years. The reason is not neglect by the staff, who are excellent and understaffed. It is that the district licenses breeders and boarding kennels without inspecting them, and an unenforced license is a license to do nothing.
The inspection gap
Between 2019 and 2024 the district issued 214 animal-related licences and carried out 31 inspections.
- Breeding licences: 68 issued, 9 inspected.
- Boarding kennels: 91 issued, 17 inspected.
- Pet shops: 55 issued, 5 inspected.
No inspection regime is perfect. One that reaches 14% of license holders is not a regime at all.
What we would change
- Inspection before issue. No license granted without a visit, and no renewal without a second one.
- A published register. Every license, every inspection date, every outcome, searchable by address.
- Fees that cover the cost. The current fee covers the paperwork and not the visit, which is precisely why the visit does not happen.
A register nobody can read is a filing cabinet with better marketing.
The shelter itself
Capacity is a symptom. The commitment is a neutering subsidy for households below the median income, which every comparable district that has tried it reports as the single change that empties a shelter fastest.
Join our Movement
Tell us where you are and what you can give — an hour a month is enough to be useful. A ward organizer will be in touch within the week.