By Andrew de Souza

Cat licenses, higher fines in new pet bylaw

Dec 14, 2010 | 6:36 AM

The city has adopted a new pet bylaw that focuses on responsible ownership and hopes to punish owners for bad animal behaviour with higher fees.

The city adopted the Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw on Monday night. The bylaw included the licensing of cats and higher fines for bylaw infringements, especially for animals that pose a danger to people.

According to a report to the city from the police service’s bylaw manager Ken Hunter, the idea behind the new bylaw is to move from a reactive position to a proactive and educational one.

“We don’t really have an animal problem; we’ve got a people problem,” Hunter wrote in the report.

“Thus we want to get serious about associated fines that send a message with a system of correcting and penalizing relatively minor behaviours before they escalate into something more serious.”

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Initially, Hunter’s report called for substantially higher fines for bylaw infringements and higher licensing fees for animals that had not been spayed or neutered.

However, at Monday’s council meeting, city mayor Jim Scarrow said the first goal should be to get as many animals licensed as possible for at the least the first year.

“I think the first initiative that we should want as a city would be to register all animals through the licensing process,” said Scarrow.

“$20 as an administration fee to make this happen is in the realm of affordability for all people in our community, $60 or $120 for a licensing fee for a non-neutered animal gets to point where people simply can’t afford it.”

As well, Scarrow recommended that fines should be increased but not to the substantially higher level proposed in the bylaw.

Councillor Martin Ring agreed but said that fines associated with putting an animal in danger should be considerably higher.

Council agreed with the approach put forward by the councillors and adopted the bylaw with the amendments.

The bylaw also adds a provision that would allow licensed pet owners to get a “get out of pound free” credit with their licensing fee, should their animal ever get lost.

As well, the SPCA will now receive all proceeds from licensing fees.

paNOW will provide a link with the new fees and fines when they are made public.

adesouza@panow.com