Bill Bruce (not the West High principal) looks nothing like a rock star.
Far from it. The bureaucrat from Calgary looks a lot like our own homegrown bureaucrats, middle-aged and somewhat, er, rumpled.

Given the awed reaction to his methodically delivered PowerPoint Wednesday evening, though, he could have been wearing leather pants, strutting across the Kern County Board of Supervisors chambers bare-chested, belting out a sweaty encore of “Emotional Rescue.”

The audience — mostly women — was riveted.

It was a long presentation so I’ll cut to the heart of Bruce’s Jagger-esque magnetism:  Calgary, population 1.1 million, euthanized a total of 419  dogs and cats in 2008.

Here in Kern County, population 827,000, we killed 19,742 dogs and cats last year.

That’s beyond crazy. It’s warped, sick, horrifying and it has to stop.

Wednesday’s audience — and many in the community who care for animals or just hate waste — are desperate to know, what does Calgary have that we don’t? And how can we get our hands on some of that mojo?

You’ll be happy to know it’s all there for the taking.

Clear communication, partnerships, accessibility, accountability and education.

Gad! That sounds like work.

And it was. According to Bruce, 20 years’ worth. That’s how long it took for him to get Calgary out of the depths of animal control woes to become the shining light of success it now is.

But, he told the audience Wednesday, that time frame includes all his mistakes. Knowing what he knows now, he said, he could help a community do it much faster.

There were a lot of unique aspects to Calgary’s program — state of the art equipment and information technology — but I was most impressed by how they handle two basic concepts: licensing and education.

In Calgary, 91 percent of owners have their dogs licensed. Bakersfield’s dog licensing rate hovers near 10 percent, according to city animal control staffers.

Bruce achieved those numbers by bombarding citizens with the message that a license was their dog’s ticket home. And he made getting a license ridiculously easy and fairly cheap ($31 fixed, $52 non-fixed).

You can get a license online, at the bank, the corner store and any number of other places. They don’t even require proof of a rabies vaccination. They go on your word.

Not sure if that would work in California without Legislative intervention as state law and local ordinance require a rabies vaccination to get a license. But I’ll bet there’s a Kern County Senator running for Lt. Gov. (Dean Florez, hint hint) who might tackle the issue if the headline count is right.

Giving away licenses like gumballs actually increases compliance with rabies laws as well as spay/neuter goals, Bruce told the Wednesday crowd. Calgary doesn’t have a mandatory spay/neuter law nor an animal limit, by the way.

Once you get a license, your dog is in the system and can be monitored, which makes it easier for the city to get you to pay for the license year after year. Calgary’s animal control budget is about $5 million all fee produced, no general fund monies. Kern’s budget is $4.6 million, most from the general fund.

Calgary uses its money to fund myriad animal control programs, including an in-depth educational component.

I was very intrigued by this.

They don’t just have animal control officers take a dog to a few assemblies a year. They have a certificated teacher who has created grade-appropriate curriculum.
Animal control officers provide all the materials and teach kids about pet ownership, the safe way to deal with strange dogs, what the city’s laws are, etc.

Brilliant!

Not only does it instill responsible pet ownership values in children, those kids go home and shame their parents into doing the right thing. Hey, it worked with recycling.

Guy Shaw, director of Kern County Animal Control, has shown since taking over the department that he’s willing to try new things, including a small but growing foster program, opening the door to more rescue groups and transferring Kern’s animals to shelters that don’t have many animals.

As for Bruce’s ideas, he said he’s eager to look at what might fit here.

Maybe we can’t give licenses without proof of rabies shots, but Shaw has considered an “amnesty” day so fines or  problems could be swept away for a current license. And he’s going to start offering online licensing in the next few months.

“I’m willing to listen to anything that anyone has tried that works,” he told me. “The least that can happen is it doesn’t work and we’re no worse off than we were before.

“But we won’t know unless we try.”

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

LOW-COST SPAY/NEUTER OPTIONS

HOPE, a low-cost spay/neuter service, runs a twice-monthly transport to Fresno through the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on Gibson Street.

Costs for cats are: $55 for females and $45 for males.

For dogs, the costs vary depending on size, from $75 for a female and $65 for a male weighing up to 64 pounds and $115 for a female and $105 for a male weighing more than 100 pounds. All appointments must be made through the SPCA at 323-8353 and must be paid in advance.

The animal must be brought to the SPCA before the appointment to be weighed and medically checked. On transport day, the animal must be at the SPCA on Gibson Street off Rosedale Highway by 6 a.m.

Owners must pick up the animal the following day between 11 a.m. and noon.
All animals are required to have a rabies vaccination. If proof cannot be provided at the time of registration, owners will be charged $12 for a vaccination before boarding the transport.

Angel Dogs is a mobile spay/neuter service that comes to the Kern County Animal Shelter, 201 S. Mount Vernon, the first Wednesday of each month.

Cost is $90 for cats and $110 for dogs. You can obtain a $20 voucher from the Kern Humane Society toward that cost.

Contact the shelter for more information at 868-7125.

Kern Humane Society has vouchers toward the cost of animal alterations. Contact them at 325-2589.

KERN'S SAD NUMBERS

Last year, Kern County Animal Control was forced to euthanize 19,742 unwanted animals. Here’s how the numbers compare from last year to this year for January 1 to June 12.

Intake (animals coming to the shelter)
2008
Total: 12,824
Cats: 5,478
Dogs: 7,221
(Remainder is livestock, birds, etc.)
2009
Total: 14,237
Cats: 6,126
Dogs: 7,990

Euthanized
2008
Total:  7,655 (64 percent killed)
Cats: 3,811 (75 percent)
Dogs: 3,752 (58 percent)

2009
Total:  7,790 (56 percent)
Cats: 4,389 (76 percent)
Dogs 3,356 (44 percent)

Adopted
2008
Total: 1,594
Cats: 349
Dogs: 1,229 dogs
2009
Total: 1,812
Cats: 388
Dogs: 1,413

Sent to rescue groups
2008: 1,748
2009: 2,012

Tranferred to other shelters
2008: 42
2009: 645