Lethbridge dog owners encouraged to renew licenses before months end to avoid fines

A lot of times when Animal Control officers pick up dogs that aren’t registered, the excuse typically is that the dog never leaves the yard.

“Obviously at that point, it has, so it’s better to be safe rather than sorry,” Plourde continued. “The fees are quite inexpensive, and it is required by law.”

That’s another big message they’re trying to get across to people, whether you think you need it or not, ultimately you do have to have it.

“Any dog six months or older within the City of Lethbridge has to be registered with the city. Under the bylaw, if you’re caught without a dog license, it’s a specified penalty of $150 to a maximum fine of $2,500 if it ever ends up in a court situation.”

Plourde says while the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen very often, they do issue the $150 fine more than they would like.

“We don’t like issuing tickets, but it’s the best way to get compliance. Often the reason why the dog isn’t registered is simply that the person hasn’t gone and done it yet, we’re not running into a lot of people that say they didn’t know. Which is good, because the compliance rate has been going up, and we actually had quite a big jump in compliance over the past two years,” Plourde stated.

Annual dog licenses range in cost as follows:

– $20 – Fixed and has a microchip and/or tattoo

– $25 – Fixed but no microchip or tattoo

– $45 – Not fixed but has either a microchip and/or tattoo

– $50 – Not fixed and no microchip or tattoo (ID)

When officers are out dealing with lost dogs, it can be a big issue if they pick up any that aren’t registered.

“We pick up a lot of dogs, the Animal Shelter handled over 800 pets in 2018. If an officer responds to a complaint about a dog running at large, we pick the dog up. If it’s wearing a city tag, we run that from the computer in the patrol vehicle and drive the dog straight home. If it’s not wearing a city tag, it comes back to the Animal Shelter.”

Plourde gave an example that if they were to pick up a lost dog on a Saturday and it’s not tagged, it has to stay at the shelter until Monday because they’re closed on Sundays.

“That’s a day the dog isn’t with its family. If someone comes forward and says it’s their pet, it’s a lot harder for them to prove that it’s theirs because we do require proof of ownership when you claim an animal from the shelter.”

That’s what makes a city tag so easy because if your driver’s license matches the name on the licensing account, the dog does home. If not, you have to provide paperwork or something that satisfies the requirements at the shelter to make sure you’re the registered owner.

If a dog is wearing a licensed tag and it’s brought to the Animal Shelter, it’s held for 10 business days. If it’s not wearing any identification, they only have to hold it for five business days.

“That comes from the bylaw in the Animal Protection Act for the province. We always compare it to registering your vehicle because you’re required to register your vehicle with the province. The licence plate goes on your car and that says that car belongs to this person, it’s pretty much the same thing with a pet. If the pet ever goes missing, and it does happen even to perfect pet owners, that’s when you’re going to wish you had the tag on the dog so either we can get it home, or a neighbour down the street finds the dog and calls it in. Then we can run the tag information and get it home to you a lot quicker that way.”

Owners of licensed dogs who have changed addresses within the past year are asked to update their contact information by calling 403-320-4099. It’s also easy to renew your dog license online here as well as by mail or in person at City Hall or the Animal Shelter.

In 2017, there were 7,261 dogs registered with the City of Lethbridge. In 2018, the numbers jumped to 8,982. The numbers have been steadily growing since 2010, and officials believe that’s because of a mix of education and enforcement that they’ve been undertaking.

Plourde was asked how many dogs he thinks are currently unlicensed in the city and said while there’s no definitive answer because things change so much due to people moving in and out of the city all the time, they do have estimates.

“We looked at the average statistics on how many pets are owned in Canada, and we looked at the population of Lethbridge which is about 100,000 at this point. There should be around 11,000-12,000 dogs in the city as far as an average goes. We’re sitting at just under 9,000 registered, so we’re pretty close but to be honest we’ll probably never get 100 percent compliance.”

That’s going to be nearly impossible because of things like the changing population of students at the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge College that do come with pets sometimes to stay during their semesters.

Still, Plourde wants those people to still register their dogs because they do run into situations like that where they do pick up a dog that’s visiting more than temporarily but not full-time from out of town.

“But we don’t know that unless it’s wearing proper registration tags from either our municipality or the municipality where it resides normally.”

As of Feb. 1, officers will be conducting follow up of overdue accounts and taking enforcement action.

Of course, dogs aren’t the only pets in Lethbridge, and Plourde weighed in on whether registering cats in the city would be a good idea.

For example, the City of Calgary began making the registration of cats mandatory through Animal Services in 2008.

“Obviously the benefits of licensing the dogs has worked, and we’ve seen the compliance there,” Plourde explained. “Registering cats would help us reunite them as well, because the Animal Shelter does process both cats and dogs, and obviously with a licensing system it makes it a lot easier to find a way to get those animals back to their homes.”

Plourde imagines that if something like a bylaw controlling cats was enacted, it would take some time to get to the level where they are with dogs.

“It would definitely be a big grace period to try and get voluntary compliance and setting up the proper means of doing that.”

Currently, they do have voluntary licensing for cats, so anyone can register your cats with the city.

“Same thing as dogs, they get a tag, but the renewal process is a lifetime basically at this time, so we highly encourage that. It’s obviously worked in other municipalities where they require people to legally register their cats, it does take time, but it helps reduce the number of strays out on the streets and helps us deal with lost pets coming through the facility,” Plourde said, adding it would be nice to see at some point.

by Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Lethbridge dog owners encouraged to renew licenses before months end to avoid fines

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