Some fresh air and exercise can make all the difference for canines living in cramped quarters at an animal shelter.

That was the message officials and a volunteer with the Humane Society Yukon delivered at Monday's city council meeting. They spoke before council passed the first two readings of a bylaw for the group to lease additional city land next to its Mae Bachur Animal Shelter.

The proposed 10-year lease would be for an extra 2,341 square metres, allowing for a larger dog run area and more space for outdoor kennels.

As society president Hoby Irwin explained to council Monday evening, since the shelter was open in 1998, the number of animals coming in has risen substantially. Meanwhile, the overall space for the animals has remained close to the same (with the exception of the current dog run area).

For example, the shelter housed 17 cats and 340 dogs in 2011, 71 cats and 192 dogs in 2012 and 97 cats and 236 dogs so far this year.

The population rises and falls depending on the number coming in or being adopted or fostered out.

Spring, summer and fall can be especially difficult times for overcrowding, society vice-president Linda Priestley told council.

Four times this year already, the shelter has been too full to accept animals and, unfortunately, that's when animals get left on the shelter doorstep after it's been closed for the day, Irwin said.

Staff arrive to find dogs tied up outside the shelter. They are left with few options but to take them in, which means the shelter is even more overcrowded than it already was.

When the Tlingit Street facility is overcrowded, the animals become stressed, which can mean the dogs "react with aggression,” Priestley said. That puts not only other animals at risk, but staff as well.

The shelter's presence, Irwin emphasized, means there's not as much pressure on the city and territory for animal control and that animals that might otherwise be euthanized find a home.

"It takes a load off the government,” he said.

He also stressed that the land that the shelter is asking to lease is basically swampland.

The current dog run area (which would be expanded with the lease) was dug up, levelled off and covered with crush for the dogs to run.

Local contractor John Talsma described himself as the "culprit” behind the current dog run.

As he explained in a presentation to council Monday, he owns a building in the area.

When he saw a group of dogs outside in a very small outdoor area, he thought they needed more space.

Talsma contacted city officials, who provided permission to use the land, and called a few other contractors he knows to see if they could help out.

Mike Mickey, as well as Castle Rock Enterprises, stepped up to the plate. Both provided fill, with Mickey also assisting with the use of a loader. Talsma also managed to find some fencing.

"When it comes to animals, we're pretty soft,” he said of the contracting community.

Since the new Whitehorse Correctional Centre has an area for inmates to exercise, Talsma pointed out, so too should the shelter have a larger area for the animals to exercise in.

In a previous interview, Irwin noted that currently the dogs have to be brought out in shifts to get exercise, which makes for a lot more work for staff.

With the proposed lease, the shelter would have space for a communal area, larger dog runs, an area for cats, and outdoor kennels with fencing as well.

Talsma noted he'd be willing to help out once again with fencing on the leased area. As he pointed out, there would be no cost to the city to lease the land.

"I think it's a very worthwhile cause,” he said.

The presentations to council came a week after concerns were expressed by Mayor Dan Curtis about entering into a decade-long lease when the area may be in for some growth in the coming years between private development and Kwanlin Dun First Nation (KDFN) and Ta'an Kwachan Council settlement land.

The lease area is adjacent to KDFN land and, as council learned last night, city officials have spoken with the KDFN, which had no concerns about the proposed lease between the city and the humane society.

That was enough for Curtis, who noted that part of council's job is to ask questions, and he received the answers he was looking for. He noted if the KDFN has no concerns, then he "most certainly” doesn't either.

He also praised the presentations on the matter.

Meanwhile, Coun. Dave Stockdale's support came partially thanks to a movie he watched last weekend.

He jokingly commented that he had an "epiphany” while watching a film about a woman who dies in a car crash and attempts to raise enough funds for a gorilla enclosure at a zoo. Stockdale said the movie inspired him to put his support behind the lease for the society.

Coun. Mike Gladish then joked that while Stockdale was watching a movie, he drove down to the shelter to see the area so he could vote with a "clear conscience.”

Both Councillors John Streicker and Betty Irwin (Hoby Irwin's mother) also voiced their support for the lease, noting the community effort that went into the current dog run area and that the land will see improvements.

Betty Irwin also picked up on Talsma's point about the exercise yard at the jail.

She noted it's provided to prisoners because it's well-known how important fresh air and exercise are to the human population.

Animal shelters, she said, are to dogs what jails are to humans, and animals need space to run.

She also pointed out that the lots to be used are not serviced and likely too small for any buildings to be developed on.

Coun. Kirk Cameron was absent from last night's council meeting.

Third reading on the 10-year lease (at a rate of $10 per year) will come forward next month.