Starting at the beginning of May the City of Lethbridge will implement a new Animal Care and Control Bylaw that modernizes and brings several existing bylaws together.
City council members unanimously voted in favour of the new bylaw during Tuesday’s council meeting. Director of Services and Enforcement at Community Animal Services Skylar Plourde says the new bylaw includes specific regulations for cats and dogs, including a restriction of no more than six cats per household and a low-cost microchipping program that will be a new initiative that is part of the Voluntary Cat Licensing Program.
“We are seeing, for example, a higher return to owner rate of cats that are coming into the shelter currently as strays and we’re seeing a lot more people have microchips in their cats, which means they’re starting to take more responsibility and recognizing the importance of having ID on your animals,” Plourde says. “We wanted to see a bylaw that’s going to capture and reward that already responsible activity that pet owners are practicing and make sure that we have something that reflects the expectations of the community, both from pet owners and non-pet owners.”
He adds during the public engagement they looked to get the input of people in the community who don’t necessarily have animals. The new bylaw sees some fine amounts for more serious offences increase to align better with the standard of animal control bylaws in the province, along with added provisions related to where cats are creating a direct threat or nuisance to the public.
“It also does broaden some regulations which were traditionally specific to just dogs, to all domesticated animals. That includes standards of care, such as food, water, shelter, leaving them in vehicles unattended.”
“It does strengthen some of the procedural parts of the bylaw for the enforcement end and modernizes some of the terminology and such as far as definitions and things.”
General Manager of Regulatory Service, Duane Ens says the consolidation process was timely but needed, with many of the existing pieces of legislation needing to be modernized.
“The Dog Control Bylaw is two decades old, the Pigeon Bylaw hasn’t been revised since 1965 and the Wild or Domestic Animals Bylaw was last amended in 1983. The new bylaw makes it easier for the public and authorities to access information on animal regulations,” Ens says.
The new by-law, which will go into effect on May 1st also includes rules for a permit process that would support a potential Urban Hen Pilot Program, if it were to be given approval by council in the future.
