Canada Archives - CATFENCE

Cat licences in Canada, plans to ban roaming

Neil Sanderson — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 12:29:54 +0000

The Canadian city of Guelph is moving towards banning roaming cats within the next five years.

Guelph City Council’s Committee of the Whole approved a new animal control bylaw on Monday, which includes a CAD$25 cat licence by 2018.

The recommended bylaw goes to full council on 19 December for final approval.

But some of Monday’s discussion centred on how the licensing of cats was part of the process moving towards creating a bylaw that will ban them from roaming outside.

The city’s General Manager of Operations, Doug Godfrey, says that not allowing cats outdoors* is something the city hopes to phase in over the next five years.

(* Presumably he means not allowing them to stray from their owners’ properties.)

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$100 fine for roaming cats

Neil Sanderson — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 12:30:30 +0000

I was reading a story online about a roaming cat that got its paw stuck in a leg-hold trap set by a neighbour.

This case was in the Canadian city of Regina – although we’ve certainly had similar occurrences here in New Zealand recently.

Something else that caught my attention, however, was that Regina has a bylaw against roaming cats, and the fine for a first offence is C$100, or about NZ$130.

“It’s far safer and far healthier for [pets] to stay inside,” says Bill Thorn, director of marketing for the Regina Humane Society. “The dangers outside and the things they can run into far outweigh any negatives of them staying inside.”

The cat owner in this story is quoted as saying she knew about the bylaw, but she still let her cat roam the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the poor cat is paying the price for her actions.

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Margaret Atwood comic book tackles roaming cats

Neil Sanderson — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 01:32:52 +0000

Best-selling novelist and environmentalist Margaret Atwood, whose books include The Handmaid’s Tale, Surfacing and Alias Grace, has produced her first series of comic books, in collaboration with Nature Canada.

Angel Catbird is the story of a superhero – part cat, part bird – and the books highlight the dangers of free-roaming cats, both to native wildlife and to the cats themselves.

“Birds are in crisis right now, they really are,” says Atwood.

“There are a number of factors having to do with that. One of them is habitat loss, one of them is poisoning, one of them is window collisions, but a big factor is cats. So how do you influence that without demonising cats? The only way that you can really do that is through a character who combines cats and birds. And, therefore, it’s not that he’s a split character, with a good side and a bad side, he has a cat side and a bird side. And neither one is worse than the other.”

The first edition of Angel Catbird will be released in September, with two editions to follow.

27 July 2016

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Canadian city bans roaming cats

Neil Sanderson — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 04:14:16 +0000

And the trend continues. The Canadian city of Peterborough in the province of Ontario has just passed a bylaw that will make it unlawful for cats to roam.

The new bylaw will “mandate cat owners to license their felines and keep them on their own property or on property on which they’ve received permission to roam.” Cats will be allowed in other places if they are on a leash.

The move follows concerns about cats digging up neighbours’ gardens, howling at night and killing birds.

At least two other Ontario cities, Sudbury and Brampton, have recently enacted similar bylaws.

28 June 2016

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