Winnipeg cat licensing bylaw passes city hall hurdle

A city committeehas approved a bylaw that will require cat owners to buy licenses and ban certain exotic animals from circuses that visit Winnipeg.

The city's Standing Policy Committee on Protection and Community Services held a meeting on Thursday and heard from a number of residents opposed to certain portions of the pet ownership bylaw.

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The committee spetn much of the day debating the latest version of the plan, which is heavily focused on addressing the problem of house cat overpopulation by making owners license their felines or face stiff fines.

The report notes that Calgary, which licenses cats, has a 52 per cent return rate on lost felines while Winnipeg's rate is only nine per cent.

If passed, the program will start Jan. 1, 2015, and charge $15 annually for spayed or neutered cats or $50 for those unfixed.

Failure to license a cat would result in a $250 fine, similar to the fine imposed for the failure to license a dog.

The proposal had called for half of the gross proceeds be used to expand the Winnipeg Humane Society's spay and neuter programs and provide fundingto its partner organizations such as Winnipeg Pet Rescue and D'Arcy's A.R.C.

The CEO of the society, Bill McDonald, said the funds mean he could likely fix another 1,700 cats.

"I've got three full-time vets, five animal health-care techs. I am completely maxed out at 6,000 operations in a year," he said.

In order to make a serious dent in the cat population, McDonald said that number needs to be closer to 10,000 per year.

But an amendment was made to the bylaw Thursday afternoon, that said only half of the proceeds from the bylaw would go to a spay and neuter program, and the COO of animal services would choose which one.

Now that the committee has approved the amended bylaw, it will go before the city's executive policy committee for another vote.

The committee also approved a ban on exotic animals in the city. The committee did recommend a provision for animals like falcons or reptiles, though.

Backyard chicken decision divides committee

The proposed bylaw also included a section on urban chicken-keeping.

Current bylaws allowed for public schools to keep chickens but not private schools. The new plan now includes the latter.

Stacie Gottfried, who lives in the city's North Kildonan area and has kept backyard chickens for the past three years, wants it expanded a little more.

She has been appealing an order to get rid of her roost, but told the committee she homeschools her children and should be given the same consideration as the public and private institutions.

"We're learning a lot from raisingand keeping chickens.We are asking that webe allowed to keep our chickens and that our homeschool youth, our kids and also other kids we are connected to in the home-schooling community, be allowed the same opportunity to be involved in raising and having urban chickens," Gottfried said.

The committee sent the decision to the city's executive policy committee with a negative recommendation -- which means the committee could not agree on whether or not it should be implemented.