The Town of Innisfail has taken responsibility and apologized for what happened to a family cat named Mikey, and council should consider compensating the Piesse family by changing the cat bylaws.
Rural communities like Innisfail do not take the lives of cats seriously.
Because of what happened to Mikey council needs to be made aware of how cats are really treated by both residents and now a peace officer.
The bylaws were not followed by peace officer Brandi Gray, so more needs to be done to reprimand this individual than only allowing a resignation. It appears the peace officer had personal issues with the cat owner, which got in the way of doing her job objectively without prejudice.
This is reinforced by initial claims that the cat was sick, wasn't chipped and the fact that the 72-hour protocol was not followed. Regardless of whether or not this cat was licensed it did not deserve to die.
Council should also consider contacting the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association to change its policy and permit veterinarians to contact an owner. If the vet was allowed to contact the Piesse family Mikey would still be alive today and council would only be dealing with a peace officer who was not following protocol.
Why does Innisfail have a bylaw to kill a cat in the first place? It's time council changed its ways and worked with rescues to find homes for the cats instead of killing them. Cat bylaws were instituted to humanely reduce the cat overpopulation but have proven to be ineffective.
Taxpayers foot the bill of the ever increasing animal control costs and yet it does nothing to reduce the cat population.
Instead of throwing away tax dollars with no results, council should consider financially supporting local animal rescues with TNR (trap neuter spay return) programs.
Too often council applies the same bylaws to cats that they do to dogs. These are two completely different animals.
Unlike a dog, a cat cannot wear a collar safely and microchips are the safest identification. Unlike a three-dog limit per household (mostly because of barking), why does there need to be a three-cat limit per household, especially when there are responsible cat owners?
The City of Calgary does not limit the number of cats per household, so why does Innisfail need a limit?
Joan Kerbes and Juergen Ross
Calgary
Editor's note: This letter was initially sent to the Town of Innisfail and was included in the council agenda package for its July 9 regular meeting.
