New Animal Care and Control Bylaw passed
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on January 22, 2025.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
Lethbridge has a new Animal Care and Control Bylaw after city council gave its blessing on Tuesday.
Council gave second and third reading to by bylaw 6475.
This new bylaw has several changes to previous city regulations and includes several matters relating to cats including restricting the number allowed in one household to six.
As council had already heard from Regulatory Services manager Duane Ens, there will be no efforts to remove a seventh cat from households with the intent being to achieve the maximum naturally. A cat licencing program is not being considered in part due to lack of compliance in other communities.
A cat licensing program would require $168,600 to $300,000 annually depending on the level of service, “with only a portion of these expenses offset by the revenue generated from cat licensing fees. Given this insight, we believe mandatory cat licensing is not the most effective approach for our mid-size city, stated a report submitted to the Social and Safety Standing Policy Committee in November by Ens.
Ens told council on Tuesday the new bylaw combines three old bylaws into one area. He said a pigeon bylaw was going to be discarded until the City learned a small pigeon organization is still active here.
A cat and dog micro-chipping program is also to launch this year, providing a low-cost service to the public. This program is targeted mainly at cats to reunite owners with their lost animals and keep them out of the shelter.
The Safety and Social Standing Policy Committee of city council recommended at its meeting on Nov. 21 that council give final readings to the bylaw.
The existing dog bylaw was two decades old and Ens’ report stated updates were needed to “better reflect current practices, public needs and to address various housekeeping needs.”
The City’s pigeon bylaw has been unchanged since 1965 and the Wild or Domestic Animals Bylaw was last amended in 1983.
The City has formulated the establishment of an urban hen program and recently established non-profit organization referred to as the Citizens of Lethbridge Urban Hen Chicken Club (CLUCC) is drafting a proposal outlining program details.
The new bylaw also increases the number of pet rabbits allowed in a household from one to two. It also restricts those people involved with pigeons to fly no more than 30 birds.
And it also restricts owners from leaving animals unattended in vehicles during extreme temperatures and requires them to properly restrain their animals in motor vehicles.
Ens told council the bylaw contains for provisions for increased fines up to $500 for certain behaviours it wants to see reduced,
The bylaw also contains provisions for written orders to be given animal owners which will allow them to be taken to court if necessary.
Councillor John Middleton-Hope expressed concern that while dogs are required to be kept on leash or on private property cats are allowed to roam free to defecate in other peoples’ yards. He also asked Ens how many birds are killed by dogs compared to the numbers killed by cats.
Ens noted there are provisions in the bylaw to address cat defecation and told Middleton-Hope dogs are seen as posing more of a potential threat than cats hence different regulations regarding the two species.
Council heard there are about 80 to 100 reports of dog bites every year in Lethbridge.
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the chip program is a wise move. and, while more can be done by the community to help with the safety of our beloved domesticated critters, chipping will go a long way toward helping reunite owners and pals. (far better than the insidious CHIP that systematically steals one’s home out from under them).
as for the concern about cats killing birds, well, that is how nature works. we don’t like it, of course, except where turn our convenient blind eyes to the industrial meat and fishing complex, and to the likes of trapping, where the sheer breadth and scope of inhumanity is routinely regarded with indifference. just to note – if birds had no predators, they would suffer death by starvation at the least. another note: cats are pretty good at helping to control pests, such as mice, and rats where rats exist.
mind you, just as an aside, what kills more birds – and too many other living, breathing, loving life forms – are the likes of habitats made toxic or utterly impoverished by people. heck, our love of chemicals, which we generously share with all around us, and even just one bulldozer and one destroyer (some call them developers), likely create suffering and death for more birds and critters in our city than all natural predators combined.
meanwhile, if one encounters a couple nuggets of poop in their garden, it is not like you need to call an excavator – how easy it is to scoop into a bag and garbage it. is that really so hard to do – why sow hate and intolerance toward something over something so little and so natural? consequently, we have idiots that go so far out of their way, acting on their irrational hate, trapping cats and dumping them somewhere where they are likely suffer a slow and miserable death…over poop? of course, there are those that trap so they can torture, and/or kill, but somehow the city will not acknowledge that and ban trapping – except by city registered people.
why do we exude so much energy around things that are heartless, and plain nasty, rather than act with love and compassion? it is ever the more a ME land, where even for some, a stop sign and a speed limit may be seen as affronts to freedom.
Rubbish, at least in part. Cats are not indigenous to this area and have few, if any predators after them, as dogs are controlled. Cats kill and torture for pure sport. At least if the odd eagle or owl gets a cat, it is for a meal. Mouse traps are extremely cheap to buy at any dollar store. With viruses and other factors affecting the bird populations, they need a helping hand,if in the future people want to know what a robin even looks like.
Ever try to get a stray cat (with or without a chip )admitted into the shelter? If you even get a call back from staff it is remarkable.Dog licenses help cover the costs to run the shelter. As cats do not currently require a cat license and therefore do not generate a money trail, there is less space and regard attached to them.
Now if microchips were mandatory for cats with very heavy fines for noncompliance, then we might be beginning to get somewhere on this issue.
This “new” bylaw is as lame and spineless as most councilors.