It seems every dog, and cat, will have its day after all.
Last month Coun. Aldo Ruberto wanted administration to look into whether the city should limit the amount of pets people have in their homes and how other cities handle multi-pet situations.
That idea was turned down by one vote.
But during city council Monday the idea was revived and passed after a lot of amendments and procedural confusion. City administration will now prepare the report and bring it back to council in December.
Some councillors, like Coun. Andrew Foulds, said it didnt' make sense to limit pet ownership and the city already has enough bylaws in place to deal with pet issues.
"Those issues have nothing to do with the numbers. It has to do with care," he said.
City administration, including developmetn manager Mark Smith and city manager Tim Commisso agreed that there are plenty of ways to deal with the issue.
"We have a fair array of bylaws in place," Commisso said.
But they said the issue is one of enforcement. And because of that lack of enforcement, Coun. Aldo Ruberto said the city needs to take a look at how it handles issues that come up when someone has too many pets.
"What about the right of the person next door," he asked.
Coun. Mark Bentz said if there is a better way to handle the issue then the city should take a look. Councillors who didn't support the idea were running away from the problem he said.
"I don't accept that I want to know what the answers are," he said.
The discussion eventually turned to bylaw enforcement in general, something mayor Ketih Hobbs said is one of the main issues he hears from the public. Coun. Trevor Giertuga and several other councilllors said they should hear from bylaw enforcement about the problems with enforcement in general.
"We're cherry picking one issue," Giertuga said.
Smith said he would be happy to have a future meeting where council heard about bylaw issues.
