Morinville residents may have to keep their cats and dogs on leash most of the time after town council has pulled a 180 on its proposed pet bylaw.
Town council voted unanimously last week in favour of a motion by Coun. Rob Ladouceur to reconsider/undo second reading of the 2016 Responsible Pet Ownership and to have administration rewrite the law so that it would require cats and dogs to be on leash except while in off-leash parks.
Council voted 4-3 on June 14 in favour of a motion from Coun. Brennan Fitzgerald to remove on-leash requirements for dogs (but not cats) from the law, with councillors Stephen Dafoe, Gordon Putnam and Nicole Boutestein opposed. The draft presented for third reading last week had removed leash requirements for both cats and dogs.
Enforcement services manager William Norton proposed a slew of last-minute wording changes to the bylaw last week, one of which was to actually define the term "under control" as an animal immediately responding to an owner's audible commands. (The draft required animals to be under control at all times but did not define what "under control" meant.)
Mayor Lisa Holmes said the law could not go to a final vote in its current state due to the sudden nature of these changes.
Ladouceur called for the law to be rewritten so it was primarily on-leash. He was one of the four councillors who had called for the law to be rewritten as primarily off-leash on June 14.
"I know it's a lot of work and I know it's back and forth. I'm sorry, I was wrong."
In an interview, Ladouceur said he initially supported keeping Morinville as a mainly off-leash community based on consultation with five or 10 like-minded people, many of whom owned well-trained dogs. When he spoke with about four-dozen people at the recent St. Jean Baptiste Day pancake breakfast, however, many told him it was "crazy" to keep the town off-leash, citing close calls on the trails and fearful encounters with dogs.
"I want to do the right thing and the responsible thing as a community."
Boutestein supported the change, citing a recent incident where she was confronted by an unpredictable off-leash German shepherd while running on a trail. The dog eventually obeyed its owner's commands to come to heel, but what if it had not?
"What if I was 15, 12, and on my skateboard?" she said in council.
"That (dog) could have easily attacked me or anyone else."
Dafoe spoke of seeing a young boy pull his legs up on his chair in fear when approached by an off-leash bulldog at the St. Jean Baptiste Day car show.
"The uncertainty of what that dog might do is the reason why I think we should have a leash law," he said.
"The dog may be perfect and may be under full control, but the person encountering the dog does not know that."
Ladouceur said that he can usually control his dog without a leash, "but if she sees a rabbit, she's gone. Does that mean I don't have control?" Requiring dogs to be on-leash would add certainty and protection to the public.
Fitzgerald favoured keeping the town off-leash, saying that most pet owners in Morinville were responsible.
"Is a leash law going to prevent all animal attacks? Obviously, it won't."
Animal permits panned
Dafoe and Boutestein also criticized the law's unique animal ownership provisions, which, in their current state, allow residents to apply to keep theoretically any animal that's legal to own in Canada as a pet.
While the proposed procedures for the bylaw suggest that applicants will have to demonstrate adequate knowledge of animal care and submit a site plan for the animal's shelter, it does not contain specific rules for any one type of animal.
Dafoe said there was not enough detail in these procedures for him to support them, particularly when it came to backyard chickens. He suggested either creating a separate law for unique pets or running a pilot project.
Boutestein echoed Dafoe's concerns.
"If I have six chickens and you get six chickens, and I'm approved and you're not, what's the basis of that?" she said.
Residents should have a clear checklist of requirements for their animals and know that their neighbours would be subject to the same rules, she said.
Council moved unanimously to have the bylaw return on Aug. 30 for second reading.
