Sammy’s Pet Boarding has terminated their contract with Athabasca County to board lost pets.
“Athabasca County confirms that notice requesting the termination of an Animal Care Agreement has been initiated and received from Sammy’s Pet Boarding,” the county said in a release.
“The notice was received according to the terms of the contract. We thank Sammy’s Pet Boarding for services provided to the county.”
This comes at the end of a long time of what Vicky Stafford, co-owner of the kennel, calls harassment. During the last few years, they’ve received a number of noise complaints for barking dogs.
They were issued a letter of compliance in June, but by October, things changed again.
“They are ordering me to put fencing and screening up on the front of the property which is completely irrelevant from the kennels. And their reason being to keep (a) visual barrier, so the dogs don’t bark as much,” said Stafford.
“Anything that you see in the front there was all done voluntarily. We didn’t have to do it. And now they’re saying ‘No, you have to do it.’”
The screening has, so far, cost Sammy’s Pet Boarding $4,000 for supplies alone. Stafford stated that even with it, it’s impossible to stop dogs from barking.
“It doesn’t matter, you could have a six foot cement wall there, they’re still going to know something’s on the other side and bark at it. It’s kind of ridiculous if you think about it. You can’t stop a dog from barking, dogs are going to bark,” she stated.
The kennel where the dogs are kept is at the back part of the property, behind the cat kennel, a house and a fire pit surrounded by rocks.
“That’s what kind of did it for me, because to me at that point, it’s just harassment. My front part of my yard has absolutely nothing to do with the boarding side of the kennels,” Stafford said.
She said the decision to stop boarding the lost animals was an extremely “emotional” one.
“It’s not something that I took lightly because I knew it would have an extremely detrimental effect on the community, as well, as to where are these animals going to go now?” she said.
“From what I understand, they’re taking them to Edmonton. So, it takes up officer time going to the city, dropping the dog off there,” Stafford said.
“If it was my dog that ended up getting picked up and went to the city, I’d be (angry). Not when we have somewhere local and, pretty much, they’ve wrecked that.”
According to the county, some temporary arrangements have been made to board animals, but the release only states that when local options are unavailable to house stray animals during this time of transition, they may be transported to the Edmonton Human Society for holding with any unclaimed animals surrendered to the closest animal adoption agency.
