INNISFAIL - When this newspaper broke the tragic story of Mikey the cat last June it went national.
It was a story that painfully pulled on the heartstrings of every pet lover in Innisfail and beyond. It also put the town's woefully inadequate animal control regulations in sharp focus. They were not followed when Mikey, a beloved eight-year-old family pet, was picked up by a bylaw officer for running at large, and then wrongfully euthanized.
There needed to be change and town CAO Todd Becker wasted no time.
“We did not apply our bylaw, we’ve been inconsistent in how we run our services and yeah, we feel horrible for what has occurred and we’re taking full responsibility for the actions of the town. We’re devastated for making an impact on the family in this way and we’re totally apologetic to the family for this to occur,” said Becker in the Province's breaking news story on June 26.
The peace officer tendered her resignation on June 25.
In a July 17 editorial the Province called for the town to declare Innisfail a "no kill pet town."
Three months later the town released its new animal control rules. It set the highest standard for the welfare of domestic animals.
No longer would another healthy, well-mannered cat or dog ever be legally killed in town at the order of any human, town employee or otherwise.
Council chickens out on fowl pets
While Innisfail council unanimously supported administration for its handling of the Mikey the cat case it was less so for pet chickens.
For six months council danced around the issue of whether or not to allow pet (urban) chickens in the community. The issue was initially taken to elected leaders in May when longtime Innisfailian Lisa Reid was spotted by a bylaw officer illegally harbouring four pet chickens in her backyard. She went to council to have the bylaw changed. Elected members asked administration to seek public input.
Mayor Jim Romane said, "Quite frankly I’d let the community decide." Even Coun. Glen Carritt, a passionate anti-pet chicken advocate, weighed in with, "If they say, ‘chickens’ we go to chickens.”
A comprehensive month-long administration survey, conducted both online and in print, came back in October with overwhelming public support.
But on Nov. 13, five council members, including Romane and Carritt, ignored the survey result in favour of less reliable anecdotal one-on-one public feedback. The pet chicken issue was dead, but a new one immediately exploded across social media for the entire town to ponder in the future: the credibility of the town council's promise to listen to the people and its once heralded public engagement policy.
"We have made it a priority to ensure we do public engagement, listen to the citizenry and in this case the results came back that a lot of people didn’t like and now we are not listening to the citizens,” said Coun. Jean Barclay last November.
