Founder and President of Abby Cat Daddy the Feline Advocate Society, Logan Bryan; has the following comments on the renewel of shelter lease between LAPS (Langley Animal Protection Society) and the Township of Langley:
I welcome today’s update regarding the finalized agreement between the Township of Langley and LAPS.
This outcome sees LAPS continuing its core mission of caring for and serving the animals of Langley while the Township assumes responsibility for animal protection and animal bylaw enforcement. In my view this is how it should be. Clear separation of enforcement and animal care roles is essential for transparency accountability and the wellbeing of both animals and the people who care for them.
That said I do look forward to learning more about what specific programs LAPS will be continuing under this new framework how they will be funded and what restrictions if any will be attached. Experience across the rescue and animal welfare sector shows that the more roadblocks and limitations placed on programs the less effective and meaningful they ultimately become.
While our work is based further east in the Fraser Valley serving Mission Abbotsford and Chilliwack we face many of the same ongoing challenges. Community cat populations do not recognize municipal boundaries and the impacts of policy decisions ripple across the region. We share a collective responsibility to advocate for humane evidence based solutions that support local community cats and the organizations working on the ground.
I want to congratulate our friends on the LAPS team along with their board for reaching an agreement they can stand behind with the Township. I sincerely hope this agreement prioritizes not only spay and neuter access for cats living with families but also meaningful well resourced solutions to address the Township’s growing community cat population.
Finally I hope this moment encourages the Township to adopt evidence based recommendations including a six cat pet household limit to better address animal welfare concerns public health considerations and the realities facing rescues and animal services.
This has been an ongoing issue that many of us have spoken out about publicly and directly with Township leadership. I remain cautiously optimistic and will continue to advocate for policies and programs that put animal welfare first backed by practical humane and proven solutions.
At Abby Cat Daddy – The Feline Advocate Society, we believe that every companion animal deserves access to essential veterinary care, regardless of their family’s financial situation. Today, we’re thrilled to introduce a brand-new initiative that brings this vision one step closer to reality: The Fur Father Fund, made possible through the generosity and ongoing commitment of local realtor Jeffrey Wolfgang Klassen.
Jeffrey has stepped forward with a promise to support families who want to do the right thing for their animal companions but simply cannot afford the full $175 cost of a community spay/neuter. His contributions will directly subsidize procedures for low-income households, helping prevent accidental litters, reduce feline overpopulation, and keep more cats happy, healthy, and safe.
This is community compassion in action — and we’re incredibly grateful for it.
A Limited but Life-Changing Resource
While The Fur Father Fund has the potential to help many families, it is important for our community to understand that:
Funds are limited and will be offered on an as-available basis.
Applications are not guaranteed approval, even if applicants meet the general criteria.
All requests must go through additional processing, including documentation to verify eligibility.
Because this fund is designed specifically for households facing financial challenges, we will require supporting documents that may include proof of income, government assistance, or extraordinary hardship. These steps ensure that funds are directed to those who need them most — and that the program remains sustainable for as long as possible.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as each application is reviewed by our team.
A Community Effort — You Can Help Too
The Fur Father Fund may have been sparked by the generosity of Jeffrey Wolfgang Klassen, but its future can be strengthened by the entire community.
If you believe in accessible veterinary care, want to reduce overpopulation, or simply want to help a neighbour in need, you can also donate to The Fur Father Fund online. Every contribution directly lowers the cost of spay/neuter procedures for families who are struggling financially.
Together, we can extend the reach of this program and help even more human-animal families care responsibly for their feline companions. (Donation link will be added below.)
Why This Matters
Affordable spay/neuter access:
Reduces unplanned litters and community overpopulation.
Prevents serious medical conditions and unwanted behaviours.
Lessens strain on rescues, shelters, and TNR programs.
Creates a healthier, more compassionate community for both human-animals and non-human animals.
The Fur Father Fund allows us to bridge a gap our team sees every single day. For many households, the desire to be responsible is there — the financial means simply aren’t. Jeffrey’s generosity changes that.
A Heartfelt Thank You
To Jeffrey Wolfgang Klassen: thank you for stepping up in such a meaningful way. Your ongoing support is already making a real difference for families and felines across the Fraser Valley. You truly are a “Fur Father” to the cats who need it most.
And to our community: thank you for believing in our mission. Whether you adopt, foster, donate, volunteer, or simply share our work, you are helping us build a stronger safety net for the cats who rely on all of us.
A kitten we recently pulled from a TNR site in the trap still before being reuinited with his brother.
Across the Fraser Valley and throughout Canada, community cat overpopulation is not a “cat problem”—it is a municipal infrastructure problem, a public health problem, and a budgetary problem. As someone who works hands-on with the consequences every day, I see the same pattern in city after city: when local governments fail to invest in accessible spay/neuter and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), companion animals, residents, and taxpayers all pay the cost.
But when municipalities partner with grassroots organizations—especially charities like ours that already do the work with minimal overhead—communities see measurable, long-term returns on that investment. This is not speculation. It is evidence-based, cost-effective public policy.
Why Spay/Neuter Is Essential: Health, Welfare & Population Stability
For non-human animals, spaying or neutering is one of the single most impactful interventions we can provide. The benefits are well-documented:
Reduced risk of disease, including pyometra, testicular cancer, mammary cancer, and infections.
Decreased behaviours that lead to injury, roaming, and car-strike risk.
Improved overall welfare, especially for free-roaming and community cats who reproduce rapidly under stressful and resource-scarce conditions.
Unsterilized cats can reproduce at exponential rates—one intact female can produce over 100 kittens in her reproductive lifetime, and her offspring compound the cycle. Without intervention, this creates a pipeline of kittens entering shelters, rescues, municipal intake systems, and public spaces. This is preventable.
TNR: The Only Evidence-Based Method for Population Reduction
TNR—Trap, Neuter/Spay, Return—is proven to stabilize and reduce colony populations over time. When adult cats are sterilized and returned:
They no longer reproduce.
They maintain territory, preventing unsterilized cats from moving in (the “vacuum effect”).
Colony size declines naturally through attrition.
Jurisdictions across North America—from Los Angeles to Jacksonville to Toronto—have found that TNR reduces shelter intake, decreases euthanasia rates, and dramatically lowers municipal animal control costs. Doing nothing costs far more in the long run.
The Fiscal Case: Spaying/Neutering Saves Municipalities Money
Municipalities often don’t track the true annual cost of unmanaged cat populations, but evidence from other regions paints a clear picture: proactive spay/neuter programs are significantly cheaper than reacting to continual overpopulation.
Key findings from comparative municipal studies include:
1. Shelter Intake & Euthanasia Costs Drop Dramatically
Cities that subsidize S/N and fund TNR consistently report:
30–90% reductions in intake
40–95% reductions in euthanasia
Lower staffing and operational costs
Fewer animals entering the municipal system = fewer taxpayer dollars spent.
2. Animal Control Operations Become More Efficient
Without TNR, municipalities spend endless cycles:
Responding to nuisance calls
Picking up litters
Removing, transporting, housing, and often euthanizing cats
TNR breaks the cycle and reduces complaints long-term.
3. Public Health Costs Decline
Spay/neuter reduces:
Feline fights and bite incidents
Roaming behaviours
Environmental impacts (waste, noise, predation)
Disease transmission within colonies
Healthier, fixed cat populations produce fewer bylaw enforcement calls and fewer public health interventions.
4. Municipal Support Leverages Massive Volunteer Labour
Every dollar municipalities invest is multiplied by nonprofits and volunteers who do the trapping, transporting, housing, education, and aftercare work.
This is the most cost-efficient public-private partnership a city can adopt.
Abby Cat Daddy Volunteers releasing three recently TNR’d girls back to their home.
A Local Government Responsibility—Not a Luxury
Organizations like Abby Cat Daddy absorb enormous costs that should not fall solely on charities:
Spay/Neuter surgeries
Emergency veterinary care
Fostering and socializing kittens born in unmanaged colonies
Feeding community cats
Colony cleanup
Medications, vaccines, microchipping
Volunteer coordination, education, and public support
Intake management from residents who have nowhere else to turn
Municipalities benefit directly from all of this work—yet most contribute nothing financially.
This is not sustainable.
Local governments regularly budget for:
Waste removal
Traffic management
Parks and recreation
Rodent control
Stormwater systems
Animal population management deserves the same recognition because it produces the same essential outcome: community stability and public safety.
What Municipalities Should Do
✅ Fund targeted spay/neuter for low-income residents
Allowing cost to be a barrier guarantees continual population growth.
✅ Allocate annual funding to nonprofits performing TNR
Even $25,000–$50,000 per year can fix hundreds of cats and prevent thousands of births.
✅ Build municipal–nonprofit partnerships
Nonprofits already have the infrastructure, training, and community trust. Cities simply need to resource them.
✅ Track data and measure impact
Shelter intake, complaint calls, and bylaw utilization all decrease after investing in S/N.
The Bottom Line
Spay/neuter and TNR are not “animal issues”—they are public systems issues with clear operational and financial outcomes. Local governments can continue paying for the symptoms of overpopulation year after year, or they can invest in the solution.
Organizations like ours are already doing the work. We are already reducing municipal burdens. We are already saving taxpayer dollars.
But we cannot hold the line alone.
It’s time for municipalities to invest in community-level spay/neuter and TNR as essential public infrastructure. The returns—ethical, environmental, and fiscal—are undeniable.
