Odours are not a problem at the Last Chance Cat Ranch

By Lethbridge Herald on April 27, 2022.

Editor:

As you may have deduced by now, I am passionate about The Last Chance Cat Ranch Lethbridge. And I remain devastated by the decision made by The City of Lethbridge Subdivision and Developmental Appeal Board. Let me once again make something perfectly clear – LCCR knows we have to move. LCCR knows we are in violation of a land use bylaw. LCCR is currently looking for a new and suitable location.

As I explained in a previous post, we need more than one year to accomplish this. And the Appeal Board did increase the number of volunteers we could have in a day, but put restrictions on that which has presented us with a whole new set of logistical issues, another topic I have made a post on.

One condition that still remains reads as follows, “and within 30 days of being served with the order the facility is required to cease all emissions of offensive odours entering neighbouring properties or provide a plan to address odours.”

There are basically only two sources of offensive odours from LCCR – our three black bins and one blue bin and our catios. 

Back in the spring of 2021 the complainant, in a 90 minute presentation to city council, had raised the issue of offensive odours. I would like to take the opportunity here to inform everyone that LCCR was not aware of this presentation, LCCR was not invited to this presentation and therefore LCCR was not able to defend themselves. 

At the Appeal hearing LCCR was not allowed to mention this presentation as we were told the complainant was not present to defend himself – just as LCCR was not able to defend themselves in the previous session. The difference being that the complainant was able to attend this hearing, he chose not to be present. 

Upon learning of the complainant’s issue with our garbage bins we had the bins professionally cleaned by Bin Fresh. Since the stop order we have added a generous sprinkling of baking soda to our buildings and catio garbage cans.

 We have always washed our recyclables which consists mainly of empty cat food cans. We have asked the City several times for weekly garbage pick up as opposed to bi- weekly pickup, and are willing to pay for this added service, but have been repeatedly denied.

When the complainant mentioned the offensive odours back in the spring of 2021, we tackled our catios. At the time both our larger catios had wooden decking as well as bare dirt floors. The house catio had a dirt “hump” at one end and the sanctuary catio had quite a steep incline. 

I myself,using a spade and five-gallon bucket, hauled dirt from the house catio to the sanctuary catio until a better grade was reached. After raking the dirt to a reasonable degree of level, I then sprinkled all the dirt with baking soda and water. When it was dry, another volunteer purchased and laid artificial turf on the dirt and the areas that were too awkward to turf were covered with landscaping rock, also purchased by another volunteer. I then used a pressure washer to wash all the surfaces of the catios.

Our catios have two litter pans for the use of the cats and we changed our litter to a corn cob litter from a clay litter in order to improve odour emissions. We have always sifted our litter pans twice daily. We discontinued the practice of keeping the litter wastes in a collection bucket until over half full and instead immediately deposited it in the black bins. In the last month we have also added baking soda to the collection bag. Once weekly the litter pans are given a thorough wash with cleaner and hot water and then sprayed with a cleaner that kills odour-causing bacteria. When the weather becomes warmer we will once again pressure-wash the catios.

LCCR carries out dump runs as needed and keeps the back yard free of debris that may be odour causing. Our front yard was professionally landscaped and is maintained by volunteers.

The week prior to the appeal LCCR underwent an inspection by the development officer for the City. When asked by the appeal board if she noticed any odours she answered that she had not detected any. This also meshed with the survey LCCR conducted on the Sunday prior to the hearing by three LCCR volunteers, of which I was one. 

We surveyed the surrounding neighbourhoods on the question of odour and not one of the 18 neighbours who were home and answered our survey stated they were aware of any odours that were emanating from LCCR property. 

The appeal board asked LCCR if we were aware of the scheduled inspection.I personally felt like I had been sucker punched! All the work I had done cleaning up the catios, all the work done by fellow volunteers to maintain a clean environment had just been negated by the implied suggestion that LCCR had somehow done a “dirty”! LCCR volunteers pride themselves on how clean they keep the property and work hard at keeping it clean. 

We did know of the inspection but we did nothing different than our usual practices.

At the appeal hearing we were given five minutes per speaker to speak on a topic that was part of the stop order. Mine was on odour control but five minutes is not very long and I could not cover all the bases that I feel need to be covered. No city employee to my knowledge has spent time in the complainant’s back yard to smell for themselves if there is an offensive odours emanating over there. 

No city employee has spent any length of time with LCCR to see what we actually do. Seeing is believing.

Nancy Giles

Lethbridge