Council has postponed approval of the animal control bylaw over a number of concerns, including cats.
“There’s no comment within the bylaw about cats at all,” said concerned resident Derek Medland at a council meeting on Nov. 25.
Bylaw 897, 2014 – Animal Control Bylaw – was discussed at a Governance & Priorities meeting on Oct. 14, where it was decided to remove any mention of cats from the bylaw as a cost saving measure.
Though the municipality has a problem with feral cats, omitting any mention of them from the bylaw, absolves the municipality from enforcing feline related issues.
But Councillor Bill Kovach said the issue of feral cats in the municipality is too big to ignore.
“We’ve had a lot of issues here with cats in the last little while,” said Kovach. “Feral cats, their numbers and the cost of getting rid of them so possibly we should think about putting that into the bylaw.”
Councillor Dean Ward said the cat issue is too costly to enforce.
“Unless we want to hire more peace officers at a great burden to the taxpayer, how are we going to enforce all of these things,” he said. “I think our intent was to narrow down the bylaw a bit and make it more realistic and affordable.”
Councillor Dave Filipuzzi argued that council was foisting the issue onto private citizens citing a resident who took it upon herself to transport a number of feral cats to Fort Macleod and was then responsible for their medical bills.
The municipality does not have the facilities to deal with feral cats so it has to call in outside help, explained Fire Chief Jamie Wilkinson.
In the warmer months the SPCA will send an officer to the Pass to assess the cat situation. If a cat is deemed feral it is euthanized at a cost of $100 per animal. If the cats are deemed not feral, they’re taken to Calgary and housed, said Wilkinson.
Council also discussed a number of other proposed amendments to the bylaw including whether or not to allow birdfeeders.
In the previous bylaw, birdfeeders were a contentious issue as birdfeed is as much a bear attractant as it is a bird attractant.
Patrick Thomas, director of Planning, Engineering and Operations said a stipulation pertaining directly to birdfeed could be added to the bylaw.