Penhold town council has bowed to public pressure and killed a proposed controversial cat bylaw on second reading.
“Cat owners have won the day, actually the citizens of this community have won the day,” said Mayor Dennis Cooper. “We are going to monitor people’s concerns. Right now the people have spoken. We are going to respect people’s wishes.”
Without a bylaw the town has no legal means of enforcement with cats in the community. In the meantime, the town will now blitz the public, largely through social media, to find out whether its citizens want council to come up with another solution to regulate marauding stray and feral cats in the community, or have administration come back to council in the future with a new bylaw.
“We are not going to wash our hands of this,” said Cooper. “We are just going to get more feedback. We will go one step at a time. If we get a lot of calls it (bylaw) may come back.”
Council defeated the proposed bylaw, as well as an updated dog bylaw, at its regular meeting on Dec. 19. It was the first time Penhold town council had ever attempted to pass a bylaw to regulate cats in the community.
“This bylaw, with it being defeated, is now removed and dead,” declared Cooper immediately after the vote.
When the bylaw was put to council for second reading Cooper immediately noted a “number” of citizens in the community were concerned, notably with its pricing provisions for licensing ($25 for neutered cats and $50 for non-neutered), and the proposed cap on the number of cats an owner can have. The proposed cap was set at two, but owners could have a third if they paid a kenneling licence of $125.
The cap and pricing provisions upset cat owners in the community to the point that a petition was launched. More than 400 names were collected. Almost two dozen cat owners jammed council chambers at the regular meeting in November.
Although the petition failed to meet the legal requirements of the provincial Municipal Government Act due to missing information, it was still taken seriously by town administration and council members.
“While I agree it (petition) is not legal people showed the direction they wanted. We should listen to the people,” said Coun. Heather Klein.
She added that she was not opposed to making amendments to the bylaw and offering it the public for review.
Coun. Danielle Klooster countered that she was disappointed the community appeared not to have an understanding on how bylaws work, and that citizens had the opportunity to force the town to make changes.
“I think we have to have a lot more conversation on this,” said Klooster. “Clearly people have a lot of thoughts. If there is an issue with cats in the community, what would you like to see?”
Coun. April Jones called for a pause on the cat bylaw issue, noting the overheated public temperature suggested a cooling off period was the best immediate course of action.
“I think we ought to just leave this alone. People are too hot and upset about it,” said Jones.
Meanwhile, with the new dog bylaw, which also triggered a petition and public condemnation, also being defeated the town will still have the old legislation in place to regulate canines.
“We have to go back to what they (citizens) said and that was they wanted no changes,” said Coun. Chad Hoffman.
