Dogs that have been a continual problem and are going into neighbouring yards is the reason the RM of Porcupine Plain adopted a bylaw this spring that allowed a landowner to shoot the dog if needed.
Reeve Steve Kwiatkowski said the dogs in question are large and have been a continual problem that their owner has not dealt with.
“We absolutely do not want to see any dogs killed. Absolutely not. That is first and foremost,” he said.
The RM and the owner of the yard the dogs are going into have tried to find multiple solutions but to no avail. Both RCMP and conservation officers have been called.
“After the system sort of fails, they come to us and say, ‘hey, what can you guys do?’” Kwiatkowski said.
The RM council responded by passing a bylaw that allows residents to shoot dogs that come into their property or are in road allowances which are public property.
Road allowances are strips of land between farms that are the property of the municipality for the purpose of future grid road development.
Kwiatkowski said the goal of the bylaw is to convince the dog’s owner to deal with their pet, much like any law is put in place to deter unwanted behaviour and is not meant to encourage it.
For Angi McGarry, a Regina resident who saw a post on social media, the potential for damage to any dogs is too high with the bylaw written as is.
This copy of the bylaw was provided by the RM of Porcupine Plain. (Submitted image)She was upset enough to start an online petition to stop the bylaw and said she and another person have retained a lawyer who will represent their case to the next RM of Porcupine Plain meeting.
“So what we’ve done is we retained legal counsel to try and quash this bylaw in court,” McGarry said. “There’s way better ways they can deal with this.”
“I was disgusted that a council would put this bylaw in place, especially when there’s provincial legislation they can follow like the Stray Animal’s Act and their municipal legislation,” she said.
McGarry has also started an online petition at that has reached over 2,000 signatures since last week.
“The petition is much bigger than it was yesterday,” she said on Friday. On Monday, it was at just under 2,300.
She said she understands the issue of farmers needing to deal with dogs that threaten livestock and people needing to feel safe in their yards but said the bylaw’s wording is just too loose.
“It’s like the shootout at the OK Corral. It’s the wording of that bylaw that’s disturbing,” she said.
Saskatchewan’s Animal Protection Act allows any person to destroy a dog if the person finds the dog running at large and attacking or viciously pursuing a protected animal, including livestock as they are protected.
The destruction must be done in a prescribed manner, which is defined as minimizing pain and anxiety and causes the immediate loss of sensibility and is followed by rapid death.
Under the Municipalities Act, a judge can declare an animal dangerous if it, unprovoked, approaches a person or domestic animal in an apparent attitude of attack.
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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com
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