City council was presented with a new animal control bylaw at Monday’s regular council meeting.
The new bylaw would no longer be breed-specific, instead, animal control officers would, at their own discretion, categorize animals in one of three groups: nuisance, aggressive, or dangerous.
An aggressive animal is one that has bitten, harassed, chased, or shown aggressive behaviour towards a person or animal.
A dangerous designation would be applied to animals that kill or seriously injure a person or animal.
According to councillor Brian Skakun, the new bylaw looks too reactionary.
“In a sense, if they don’t know a dog is aggressive until it attacks another animal or human, then we’re sort of behind.
“I think it’s more reactive so I do have concerns about that.”
The proposed bylaw changes come following a recent survey where 68.3% of respondents do not like restrictions being made based on appearance or breed, while 83.5% say they are in favour of a system based on behaviour.
Skakun highlights how this shows times are changing when it comes to animal control in Prince George, citing the 2003 bylaw currently in place.
“The big difference is that back then, administration said we need to create a bylaw that would give them the determination to say to the community and charter, this is what a dangerous dog is.
“So if it was a pitbull type dog it would have to wear a muzzle, there were a whole bunch of requirements around that.”
Another part of the bylaw says cats will need identification but would not need to be licensed.
The bylaw is being granted it’s first three readings.
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