The City of Cold Lake has firmed up on Bylaw No. 782-PL-23 to Amend Animal Care and Control Bylaw No. 755-PL-22.
In general, the purpose behind limiting the number of animals per household is to prevent irresponsible pet ownership, animal hoarding, overcrowding, and neglect of animals.
Enforcement of Bylaw No. 755-PL-22 Animal Care and Control Bylaw as it is currently written would result in tickets being issued to the animal owners who have requested additional licenses for animals over the maximum number permitted in the bylaw.
Additional tickets could continue to be issued until the animal owners brought themselves into compliance with the bylaw.
“Five is your limit. We do have residents that we do know that have more. And so we kept it at five and there are people that might have five little dogs or they may have three dogs and two cats, but the idea is to cap it in at five,” said Mayor Craig Copeland.
“You know you saw this during COVID a lot of people got pets. And so, you know, your bylaws according to noise and all that still stand regardless if you have one pet or five, there’s still a standard. But yeah, we kept capping it at five.
It is argued that limiting the number of animals in a household is also courteous to neighbors who may experience additional nuisances with more animals next door.
Some however argue that restricting the maximum number of animals per household doesn’t prevent irresponsible pet ownership, as owners can be irresponsible with only one pet – and responsible pet owners could be responsible with many pets.
It is argued that the capacity for neglect does not depend on the number of animals owned.