Airdrie will not have a cat bylaw any time soon.
On Oct. 3, 2011, council asked staff to look into the viability of a cat bylaw after a resident expressed concern with cats crossing busy roads and being struck, fighting and getting into garbages.
On March 19, council voted to table the bylaw until the spring of 2013.
“Certainly there is a lot of frustration with people with strays,” said Alderman Murray Buchanan.
“If we don’t have a bylaw to deal with cats destroying property, what are we going to do? What is the solution? There has to be some way to protect our residents from the damage and nuisance of stray cats.”
According to Darryl Poburan, manager of municipal enforcement, RCMP and building inspections, bylaw officers dealt with 447 cat complaints in 2009, 138 in 2010 and 507 in 2011.
Most inquiries involved requests to remove a dead cat from a road, a resident trying to find a lost cat and cats at large.
“When residents call for a lost cat, they are directed to contact the Calgary and Cochrane Humane Societies, local pet links and local veterinarians,” said Poburan. Airdrie has no facilities to house cats, he added.
City staff looked into other communities that have cat bylaws including Calgary, Okotoks, Cochrane, Grande Prairie and Spruce Grove.
“Cat bylaws operated in other communities have not been successful in achieving the results expected,” said Poburan.
“We’ve learned that those who let their cats roam or reproduce are not likely to license their cats. Compliance will likely be low. It is difficult and often impossible to prove ownership of a cat.”
He said when cat bylaws are implemented; the number of cat complaints increase as much as tenfold and the intake of cats into shelters increase exponentially.
“There is so much that is unknown,” said Poburan.
“How the community will act, how much of an increased workload this would create, how many people will license their cats.”
He said municipal enforcement would not trap the cats and that would be up to residents. In other communities with cat bylaws, claim rates are low and he does not want to euthanize that many animals, he added.
“We’ve been hearing that cats are seen as disposable pets,” said Poburan.
Poburan suggested potential solutions such as increasing public education regarding acceptable cat ownership; controlling the cat population through mandatory spay or neuter policies and a trap/neuter/return program; implementing a chip or tattoo program to identify cats when captured; and implementing lower impound fees to increase retrieval from kennels.
“What we need to do is get out to residents that allowing cats to roam at large is socially unacceptable,” he said.
He estimated that about 10,000 cats live in Airdrie. The estimated cost of setting up a cat bylaw would be about $100,000 and bring in about $26,000 in revenue.
“You can’t legislate responsible cat ownership,” said Alderman Allan Hunter.
“A lot of people will ignore the bylaw. The $74,000 (expense) doesn’t even factor in all the costs. It could get out of control. We should be encouraging citizens to get a chip in their cat.”
Council voted to roll out an education campaign to teach residents about responsible cat ownership. Council will revisit the decision to implement a cat bylaw next spring.
“I propose we do some public education on this matter and make people aware of the impact this could have,” said Buchanan.
“If these complaints continue to climb, we will have to look at this again. We just want the community to work together on the issue. We want to protect people from having their property damaged.”
City staff will bring the communications strategy for the education plan back to council as soon as possible.
