This is a letter I sent to the Mayor of Riverview:

Dear Mr. Fitch,

It is my intension, with this letter to bring awareness to a growing problem existing within the Town of Riverview. Animal control and those responsible for serving it’s residences and keeping them safe, as well as it’s animals.

Sunday, June 15, 2010, we found a dog wondering the street, who appeared to be possibly injured and called Riverview Animal Control. It was the answering service who took the initial call and assured us we’d receive a call from the animal control officer shortly.
We had to call back 2 more times and 3 hours later, no Animal Control Officer? We were extremely concerned for this little dog as it appeared to not be in good health, finally a lady, who never did identify herself over the phone, asked a few questions about the animal and said she thought she knew who’s dog it was and would call right back.

She never did call back but she did however, give the address and name of the people who had their dog and sent the owned over to pick the dog up himself. We were dumb founded, that a employee working for the Town of Riverview, felt it was OK to give out our personal information, this is in direct violation the the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

As it turns out, the man that showed up to collect the dog was not the owner, it was her son and is known in the community to be intimidating and menacing, has been arrested in the past and is very aggressive. He was not pleasant when he came on to the property and snatched the dog out of my arms and stomped off.

Now, I ask you, Sir, why did the Animal Control Officer not respond when he was paged, did not come and investigate the state of the animal ( we had mentioned over the phone that it was in poor condition, matted, smelly, dirty…..) is this not the responsibility of this department?

I read the TOWN OF RIVERVIEW BY-LAW R600-5-1 very carefully, and it states that a animal control officer will investigate the call, asses the situation and act according to the By-Laws. None of this was done and it is not the first time this has happened, Joe Leger is simply not serving his community in the fashion we are paying him to do so, how does this continue to go on?

It is my request that you look into not only this matter, but other animal related calls placed to this department and assess the competence and integrity of those employed to serve the Riverview area. Clearly there are some Privacy issues and general lack of commitment to serve animals and the people who reside in the community.

I am very concerned and saddened by this situation, and await your response to my concerns and what you will be doing to insure this no longer happens.

Sincerely,
Tanya Boudreau