Haligonians Upset with Proposed Cat Bylaw

An abandoned cat at the Halifax SPCA. This proposed law will not help this cat or others!

Here are some articles regarding the proposed Halifax Cat Bylaw:

The view from the CBC

Reporting from the Halifax Daily News


Cat bylaw has residents’ dander up
Waste of time, money, council told, and told at meeting
By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter | 2:18 PM

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Halifax city hall has more important issues to tackle than cat registration and controls, regional councillors were told over and over on Tuesday night.

Thirty-five people spoke during an almost three-hour session at regional council’s regular meeting.

More than 80 per cent of them told councillors they had issues with the city’s proposed cat bylaw.

"It’s an irresponsible and ridiculous way to spend my tax dollars," Laura Dobson of Dartmouth said after learning from Halifax Regional Police Chief Frank Beazley that the city now spends about $1 million on animal control, split between staffing and shelter.

The bylaw would hike those costs considerably, she said.

"And if there is that sort of resource available in HRM, let’s have more police, more firemen, more frequent garbage pickup and better public transit," Ms. Dobson said.

Some of the speakers told councillors they might consider paying a cat registration fee if the revenues went back into programs like Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR).

Indeed, Hubley veterinarian Dr. Hugh Chisholm encouraged council to help fund such a program using the $1 million the city would have to spend on a new shelter to accommodate an influx of strays and unclaimed cats if the bylaw is adopted.

Otherwise, cat registration would only make people "very, very angry," he said.

"I think it was Trudeau who said the nation has no business in people’s bedrooms. I think maybe the municipality has no business in cat owners’ homes if those cats are indoors."

Recently, a number of groups have lobbied city hall to implement a TNR program to trap feral cats and return them, sterilized, to their community.

That’s because the bylaw contains a clause dealing with roaming cats on private property.

The proposed legislation says anyone could trap a cat that crosses their property and take it to a shelter. If the animal was not claimed, the shelter could house it, adopt it out or euthanize it.

"Feral cats rounded up under this bylaw will not be adopted out as happy little pets to happy little homes," Bridget Curran of Fairview warned. "They will be exterminated because they will be unadoptable.

"Roaming family pets rounded up under this bylaw and not claimed within three days will also be exterminated because there aren’t enough homes for cats in shelters in adoption programs at the present time."

An Armdale man said the bylaw puts felines at risk because people can’t be expected to keep cats confined to one yard.

"You can’t stop them from roaming," he said. "You’re not going to tell them what to do."

But that’s exactly what one Dartmouth woman, who lives next door to a de facto cat shelter, wants council to do.

"We’ve been living in a litter box," Corinne Gritten of Dartmouth told council of the almost two dozen cats who wander around her neighbourhood.

Every day, her property is under siege by her neighbour’s cats, which leave feces, urine and glandular spray all over her garden.

"It makes it beyond disgusting."

A few people came to the council meeting Tuesday night to voice their concerns over a clause dealing with dogs who give the impression of threatening passersby.

If an animal control officer or shelter keeper gave the word about a "threatening dog" — even if there had been no attack — then the animal could be destroyed without contacting the owner.

Many dogs might growl or appear threatening when they are frightened, Janet Chernin told the group.

She asked council to consider giving only vets the right to euthanize an animal.

A handful of owners of lizards, iguanas and pythons also came forward Tuesday night, concerned that there is no grandfather clause that would give owners of certain exotic pets the right to keep their pet.

The proposed bylaw states that anyone — like the about 200 Burmese python owners out there in the municipality — who owns certain pets would have to turn them over to the city within 90 days so that appropriate placements could be made.

"Prohibiting these animals would create a challenge for shelters," longtime reptile owner Neil Meister of Timberlea said.

So many people spoke at the public hearing that councillors ran out of time to debate the merits of the proposed bylaw.

Instead, the meeting was adjourned until next Tuesday when staffers are expected to return with a supplementary report on some of the key issues raised by members of the public.

( apugsley@herald.ca)