By Brock Weir
The Ottawa Humane Society (OHS) has failed to deliver its promised action plan in response to a report into its behaviour assessment procedures, say Simone Powell and Beth Greenhorn from the Reform the OHS campaign.
The humane society commissioned the report by Dr. Pamela Reid, an animal behaviour expert, in September 2006 after concerns were raised about its behaviour testing and euthanization policies.
Reid’s report, released at the end of January, highlighted eight key areas for the society to improve on and recommended three different organizational models based on already existing programs.
The society added comments to Reid’s recommendations in the report and posted it on their website, but critics say they were waiting for something more.
“We don’t consider having comments embedded into the report a plan of action,” says Powell, co-founder of the Reform the OHS campaign. “I’ll give them credit, there are a few things that they said they will do but a plan of action should be a little more concrete.”
Powell says a timeline would establish a “commitment for change.”
“We’re not saying that the OHS needs to make all these changes tomorrow, but we don’t even hear a commitment from them that they’re striving for something down the road.”
Greenhorn, co-founder of Reform the OHS, says while she also would have liked to see a timeline, she is encouraged by many of Reid’s recommendations.
“I thought that she made some really positive suggestions and certainly ones that I would like to see the humane society adopt, for instance, implementing a standardized scoring system,” she says.
Reid’s report recommends delaying behaviour testing for all dogs – including dogs given to the society by their owners – by four days, allowing them to better adjust to the shelter.
She also calls for increased emphasis on “reward-based” training over physical and verbal correction, having professionally trained behaviour evaluators, and keeping written and video records of all evaluations.
Reid says she would like to see the development of an “enrichment program” for dogs at the society – including more stimulating toys, relaxing music, and increased social contact with humans and other dogs – as well as rehabilitation programs for dogs that do not meet the society’s adoptability requirements.
The society says it currently does not have the space and the resources to implement a program to further rehabilitate dogs that would otherwise be euthanized. Space has been an issue in the shelter since the 1980s, says Tara Jackson, the society’s communications manager.
“I think this shelter was built in 1968 and Ottawa has certainly grown since then, so it’s definitely in our plans to do something about the shelter in the future though we can’t announce anything right now,” she says.
The society’s responses to many of the report’s recommendations say that more information is needed from Reid.
The organization says it will carry out further research on suggested techniques and proposed models.
Jackson says the society is likely to implement the “NEVBA” test by Dr. Amy Marder, a 10-point plan that looks at a dog’s response to strangers, children, other dogs, and food guarding.
The full NEVBA test is yet to be released publicly. But Jackson says they have been in contact with Marder about its release date.
While Powell says she still has concerns about the society’s comments within the report, she says the recommended changes, if carried out, will help re-establish trust between the community and the society.
Powell says that, for her, trust was broken when a stray dog she and her partner Kevin Skerrett intended to adopt was euthanized last July after it was found to be too aggressive.
She says she thought they were doing the animal a service by seeing if the society could find his owner. But he paid for that with his life.
“I certainly hope he didn’t die in vain and that the changes will happen,” she says.