Sudbury animal control ramps up licensing enforcement

Morning North5:23Cracking down on unregistered pets in Sudbury

If you live in Greater Sudbury and you have a pet, you must register it with the city. Sudbury's animal control is cracking down on unregistered pets. The CBC's Marina von Stackelberg spoke with some pet owners to get their thoughts on the matter.Sudbury animal control is cracking down on unlicensed pets, but some pet owners say the way the bylaw is being enforced goes too far.

Three weeks ago, Cindy Chayka received an unexpected phone call from the city's animal control service.

She was told she had to register her Shih Tzu dog otherwise she'd be fined $125.

"They said, 'do you have any other animals? How many animals do you have in your house?' And they kept questioning me like that," she said.

She was shocked to be tracked down for the fee.

"I was worried and scared. To be getting calls at home, for them to be looking into the system and checking on people, I think, is wrong."

Rainbow District Animal control manager Richard Paquette said he and his officers have been ramping up enforcement since March. They make 100 to 200 calls a day to people who haven't paid up.

They also target certain neighbourhoods and parks to issue warnings and tickets.

Registration can help when pets go missing

The money helps fund about a quarter of the animal control budget, Paquette said.

"The general tax payer is paying for animal control. Registrations are a way to ensure that animal owners pay for animal control."

It can cost up to $40 per pet to buy a licence each year in Greater Sudbury. Fewer than half of dogs about 7,000 and only 10 per cent of cats about 2,000 are registered.

Animal control has a database of registered pets, which they use to ensure people are renewing their licence every year, Paquette said.

The registrations fund a quarter of animal control's $600,000 budget.

"We also conduct door-to-door campaigns in problem neighbourhoods especially," Paquette said.

"So if there are a lot of complaints about dogs in your neighbourhood. If you are caught in a park especially one of the city's dog parks without your registration tag, you can be fined there as well."

Registered pets are also put into a database in case they go missing.

Animal control picks up about 1,000 animals a year. Most of them do not have identification.