Edmonton’s Animal Services Department and the pound facility that it operates are the complete antithesis of the progressive and effective animal services departments that operate in other jurisdictions throughout Canada and the United States.  Edmonton Animal Services operates in a vacuum perpetrated by a culture of extreme secrecy and the lack of any meaningful independent oversight.  The only oversight of the Animal Services department is a civic board which operates exclusively in an advisory capacity.

Edmonton’s Animal Control Advisory Board’s mandate is to advise and make recommendations to Council.  The makeup of the board coupled with the manner in which members are chosen to serve on it ensures that it will maintain the status quo.  Six of the seven members of this board are appointed by City Council for one year terms although they may be reappointed for up to six years which allows those members who might dissent or seek significant changes to be removed relatively quickly.  Of the six members appointed by Council to sit on the present board three have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.  The seventh member of the board, and the public point of contact listed on the City of Edmonton Website, is the Director of Animal Control for the City of Edmonton.  With the most significant interest in maintaining the status quo there is an obvious conflict of interest in having this member as the point of contact for the public.  This individual has the opportunity to filter any information or concerns from the public which reflect poorly on the operation of the Animal Services department or on the performance of the director himself.  Further undermining the efficacy of this board is the absence of any elected members of Council.  Concerns from citizens will, in all likelihood, be forwarded to the Director of Animal Services providing him with the opportunity to, once again filter the information the rest of the board receives.

For the reasons outlined above, the structure of the Animal Control Advisory Board cannot be regarded as independent.  Of equal or greater concern is the exclusively advisory nature of the board.  In it’s present form this board has no ability or authorization to investigate complaints from the public.  The effect of this is that the Animal Services Department and the pound are permitted to operate in any fashion that the director elects to operate it in and ensures that no criticism of either the director or the operation of the department is made public or investigated.

The continued tenure of David Leeb as Director of Animal Services is of great concern based on his past conduct and oversight of the Animal Services department.  Mr. Leeb maintains a culture of extreme secrecy involving all aspects of the Animal Services department.  Statistics and other information which is readily available from other animal services departments is treated as if it were a matter of national security by Edmonton Animal Services and Mr. Leeb is inaccessible to the public. While animal services in other cities make a significant effort to develop new and original programs to improve the lives of the animals at their shelters and decrease the number of animals killed, under the leadership of Mr. Leeb Edmonton Animal Services makes only the most rudimentary efforts to avoid killing animals.. It does not appear that Mr. Leeb has spearheaded a single initiative to improve the lives of the animals at the Edmonton Pound or reduce the number that are killed. Mr. Leeb's previous tenure at the Valley Zoo appears to have been similarly bereft of any improvement initiatives. The only initiative that seems to be associated with Mr. Leeb is a fairly heavy handed enforcement effort to increase compliance with Edmonton’s cat bylaw that was undertaken last spring.

A further concern with Mr. Leeb's oversight of Edmonton Animal Services is his inaccessibility to citizens. Over the past several years I have made numerous attempts by telephone and in writing to arrange a meeting with Mr. Leeb without success. To date I have not even received any sort of reply from Mr. Leeb. Anecdotal evidence from other who have also tried to arrange meetings with Mr. Leeb suggests that he is routinely inaccessible to the public. An extension of Mr. Leeb's inaccessibility to the public is the lack of public access to the Edmonton Pound. Requests to view the animal housing facilities and veterinary facilities (if, in fact, there are veterinary facilities at the pound) are met with the same lack of response that requests for meetings with Mr. Leeb are. The complete exclusion of the public from the animal care and housing areas is disturbing and suggests that at a minimum the animals are being housed in poor conditions or, in the worst case, are being abused. The attitude of Mr. Leeb and the Animal Services department appears to be "just trust us when we tell you that everything is fine and the animals are being cared for properly." This attitude is completely unacceptable from a publicity funded and operated facility.

Edmonton’s Animal Services department and the pound are unique among similar services in North America in that it refuses to allow adoptions from the pound and make use of volunteers. In a rather bizarre twisting of logic Edmonton Animal Services claims that it would be too costly to use volunteers. Other departments and facilities place a high value on their volunteers and consider them indispensable in caring for the animals as well as getting the animals adopted. In many cases programs and fund raising are run exclusively by volunteers with the full support of staff and management of the departments.

While adoptable animals that are not claimed by their owners are supposed to be transferred to the Edmonton Humane Society for adoption this does not always occur as I will show in relating my experience with the pound later in this report. In my research I was unable to find any other facilities which refuse to permit adoptions. This was the case in jurisdictions in which the pound and the local Humane Society operated a single shelter or where, as is the the case in Edmonton, separate shelters exist.

There is some evidence that Edmonton Animal Services, in spite of it's public denials, is participating in the highly undesirable practice known as pound seizure. In pound seizure unclaimed animals from a pound facility are sold or given to research laboratories to be used in invasive research. I will outline what I have observed in this regard later in this report. If Edmonton Animal Services is engaging in this practice it is impossible that it could take place without the knowledge and approval of Mr. Leeb.

Edmontonians and, in particular, animals in Edmonton are being poorly served by the Animal Services department and it's director David Leeb. Thousands of animals are unnecessarily killed each year because of outdated policies and the unwillingness of the management of Edmonton Animal Services to institute programs to improve the conditions for the animals housed at the Edmonton pound. In the following pages I will attempt to provide an overview of the operations of, and programs operated by other animal services departments in North America. I will also relate my experience with the Edmonton pound as well as the disturbing events I witnessed this past summer. I will conclude with a number of recommendations to improve the operation of Edmonton Animal Services and the pound.