Herding cats and marking territory on Third Avenue

City staff must feel like cat herders all of a sudden, as their councillors have gone wandering off in numerous directions offering a variety of opinions on what needs to be done to rework the now controversial pet bylaw.

From the financial musings of Councillor Briglio, to the Judge Dredd like thoughts on feral cats from Councillor Thorkelson, most councillors weighed in on all sides of the debate that received an airing at last Monday’s council meeting.

Offering up an interesting directive Mayor Herb Pond declared: “Council is not going to defeat the bylaw, but it's not going to pass as written”, the mayor left it to staff to head back to the scratching post to try and come up with a document that will keep the pet owners of the city happy, while at the same time keep the city’s streets, alleys yards and parks safe from feisty feral cats and wandering unfriendly dogs.

From dangerous breed directives to off leash areas; the dogs it would seem will be given their own bylaw, while cats as should be expected given their nature we guess will also be given their own rules and regulations. Though as is always the case with cats, it will be done on their own schedule, as city staff suggests that they may need until January to work out the finer points of care and responsibility for cats.

The Thursday Daily News featured a front page story on the latest fall out from last Monday’s boisterous city council meeting.

PET BYLAW TO BE REWORKED BY CITY AFTER RAISING HACKLES
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Pages one and three

After hearing the opinions of Prince Rupert pet owners for three and a half hours Monday night, city council decided to take the proposed new animal control bylaw and chew on it for a while.
At first, Coun. Joy Thorkelson asked Council to table it to give everyone another two weeks to carefully consider and re-think every single portion of the bylaw, but that motion was denied.
.
That led to each and every councillor taking a moment to give their opinion in an attempt to offer some direction for city staff in potentially re-working the bylaw, and specifically, splitting it up into two - one aimed at dealing with dogs, and the other concerned with cats.

"I would move that staff be directed to make some alterations to that bylaw," said Coun. Tony Briglio.

Mayor Herb Pond made sure city staff understood Briglio's motion.

"Council is not going to defeat the bylaw, but it's not going to pass as written," Pond said.
Briglio then took a few bits out of the dog side of the bylaw.

“I approach all dogs cautiously, he said. “To simply label dogs as dangerous breeds isn’t enough.”
“I don’t think we should say A, B, and C, and leave it at that.”

Coun. Sheila Gordon Payne reiterated what many members of the public had said earlier in the meeting – the proposed bylaw, as written, would only punish responsible owners, while those who are not would be left primarily off the hook.

“The people we need to get the message to… we haven’t done that yet,” she said. “I’d be happy with just the “dangerous” dogs, and leave it at that.”

Gordon-Payne, a dog owner herself, voiced some concerns with the proposed off-leash area for dogs at Moresby Park.

“I’d be concerned with Moresby,” she said. “That would be a hard area to fence. And a big running dog can break a person’s leg. But McClymont Park… I think we can fence that in.”
Cote agree with Gordon-Payne.

“There’s got to be somewhere for them to run,” he said. But Cote was still convinced that the bylaw regarding dogs should be breed specific.

“I do believe some of these dogs are breed specific,” Cote said. “This thing has evolved from people calling councilors complaining about dogs, and they’re usually about rottweilers or pitbulls.”

Pond took a poll of councilors to see if council preferred the “dangerous dog list, and the vote was split directly down the middle – three for, three against.

Coun. Kathy Bedard suggested city council form a partnership with Canada Post, which keeps a record of unruly dogs on a daily basis.

“We need legislation to be to look at bad (pet) owners,” she said.

But the cat issue was a lot more complicated, and the consensus was that the cat-portion of the bylaw had to be completely reworked.

“The cat issue needs a lot of work,” said Cote. “I was spoken loud and clear that collars won’t work, and the whole feral cat thing needs a lot of work.

Gordon-Payne added: “I’m not sold that cats is our main problem right now… aside from feral cats.”

Briglio said that the entire idea behind licencing cats also needs to be addressed.

“I think the whole licencing issue with fees that there was a concern that there’s a money grab,” he said. “We need to have some idea what we’re going to do with that money. Maybe we should go toward having a spaying and neutering (program).”

Thorkelson said that city staff needed to come back to council with more specific ways to address the feral cat problem, which is at the crux of many of the finer points of the cat bylaw.
“We have a feral cat problem we have to deal with,” she said. “It’s obvious you have to identify it, and then once it’s a feral cat… what do you do with it?

“I think we need to euthanize – we’re not doing them any favours leaving them out in the wild.”
Council also asked city staff to revisit the number of pets issue.

“Numbers (aren’t the problem,” said Gordon-Payne. “I believe it’s how you care for them, and how you treat them. And (we need to) start doing something about those that aren’t being treated well.”

Chief Administrative Officer Gord Howie said that city staff would revamp the dog bylaw and bring it back to council Dec. 10, but he said staff would need more time – possibly until mid January – before coming up with something new regarding cats.

”You’ve given us a list of stuff to work with,” he said.

Regarding exotic animals, city council like the idea from one resident who suggested Rupertites would have to apply for a permit to own an exotic pet.

“My sense is that we won’t give a permit out for a grizzly bear,” said Cote.
.
“But maybe we can go with a permit, without making it too complicated.”