Marnie Marr
1/5
Wow. Absolutely horrific. Me and my family are all huge animal lovers and regularly support animal shelters both through volunteering and financial support. I've never seent this sort of rampant disinterest in the well being of animals in a shelter in my life.
My husband, Greg, a realtor, was showing a vacant house in Old Town Airdrie on a snowy day in October and noticed a mother cat with a bunch of kittens living under a shed in the back yard. They definitely wouldn't survive the winter. Greg contacted the listing realtor who informed him that the homeowner had moved to Vancouver and gave him permission to take these stray cats to a shelter.
He then called Airdrie Bylaw, who told him that they don't trap cats and that he should call APRC and that APRC would rent him a cat trap. He called APRC who said he should call Bylaw. Not a good system. Greg told APRC that he would trap the cats if they would rent him cat traps. They refused and said that they wouldn't rent traps when the forecast called for freezing overnight. Greg assured them that he would only trap for a few hours each afternoon. They still refused so Greg went to UFA and bought a couple of traps.
Each day he went out and baited and set the traps and then went out after a few hours and collected the trapped kittens and took them to APRC. APRC literally treated Greg like a criminal. They insisted on seeing his drivers license multiple times as they refuse to take any cats from outside Airdrie. He was able to prove we live in Airdrie (why this matters when the cats are from Old Towne Airdrie, I don't understand), but they still acted like he was a criminal. Every single staff member acted like this - it's a culture of suspician and rudeness.
They also repeatedly said that they wouldn't accept any cats after October 31, which didn't make any sense. Don't we want to save cats in the winter Finally, someone today clarified with Greg that this meant that they wouldn't accept trapped cats after Oct. 31. What does this even mean? If we put out a cat trap at noon and collect the kittens at 2pm, is this actually worse than the kitten trying to survive the winter? So illogical.
Total we trapped 7 kittens and took them to this shelter over the past week. Every time Greg was treated badly. Then, today, Greg went to bring the final 2 kittens into APRC and the incredibly rude woman at APRC flat out refused to take the kittens. She accused Greg of doing something illegal and told him he was under investigation by Bylaw. Greg asked what he had done that was illegal. She said that we were only allowed to trap kittens on our own property and told him that if she took these kittens she'd euthanize them. Seriously. She threatened to euthanize them right away because she though Greg had done something wrong. She also accused him of trapping kittens overnight (which we obviously had never done) and refused to listen to him when he tried to defend himself.
Rather than have these kittens euthanized, he drove to Tails to Tell in Crossfield. They explained that APRC is funded by the City of Airdrie and that APRC MUST take cats from Airdrie. The manager of Tails to Tell then offered to keep the kittens and that they would get the kittens transfered to APRC. Later in the day, Greg got a call from a Bylaw officer who apologized profusely and told him that APRC had acted inapropriately.
I don't know why APRC is in business but I can assure you they are not operating in the best interests of the local pet population. They seem to be very caught up with their own beurocracy and staffed with incredibly self important, rude people. When people spend as much time and energy trying to rescue kittens as Greg has, they should be commended, not treated like a criminal. Any animal lover should be thanking him for trying to reduce the number of stray un-fixed cats running wild in Airdrie. My entire family was horrified that this worker at APRC would immediately threaten euthenasia of a kitten. This place needs a complete overhaul to prioritize animal welfare.
