There are changes coming for kennel owners in Wellington North.
Clerk Karren Wallace updated council on July 24 on the status of the new kennel bylaw.
Staff was first asked to look into updating the bylaw in May.
At the June 26 meeting, council gave first and second reading to the proposed bylaw and sought public feedback.
Since then, comments from kennel owners, animal welfare proponents and the Humane Society were received.
During the latest discussion, councillor Lisa Hern asked council to take into consideration suggestions from kennel owners Brian and Valerie Cooper.
The Coopers asked council to reconsider licensing all dogs in the kennel as well as yearly police record checks for employees.
“I’m kind of wondering if we’re kind of overstepping our bounds by legislating how he hires and deals with his employees,” said Hern.
“I’m thinking it is a little excessive for the yearly kennel fee and the fee for each individual dog.”
Doubling it up
Mayor Andy Lennox said the purpose of licensing is to keep a record of the dogs at the kennel.
Richard Rauwerda, animal control officer for the township, said record keeping is already a provision in the bylaw.
“I think it’s written in there for record keeping now, so doing the licensing would be doubling it up. We’re asking for more records than what we did before,” he said.
Lennox added he agreed with Hern on the issues of police record checks.
Wallace said elsewhere in the bylaw is a provision for owners and operators to have annual record checks.
“You can’t get a kennel licence if you have been convicted under the Criminal Code of Canada for animal abuse, but that’s for the licence holder,” she said.
“Ultimately the kennel owner is the one responsible for it,” added Lennox.
Council directed staff to remove the criminal record check for employees provision, to amend record checks for owner/operators from every year to every three years, and to remove the requirement to licence all dogs in a kennel.
