Administrative Penalties Linked to Municipal Accounts
From "Comment on the Draft Animal Keeping By-Law"
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The by-law should consider introducing administrative penalties for substantiated and repeat animal-related offences, such as ongoing nuisance barking, roaming animals, unlicensed breeding, failure to sterilise animals where required, or repeated non-compliance with compliance notices.
Where legally permissible, these penalties could be linked to the property owner's municipal account to improve enforcement and collection. Similar to other municipal charges and fines, this may encourage greater accountability and responsible pet ownership while reducing the burden on law enforcement and animal welfare organisations.
A progressive penalty system could be implemented, with written warnings for first-time offences, escalating fines for repeat offences, and higher penalties where an owner's actions result in harm to animals, neighbours, or the wider community.
Revenue generated from such fines could be ring-fenced, where legally possible, to support municipal animal welfare programmes, sterilisation initiatives, animal control services, public education campaigns, and partnerships with animal welfare organisations that care for abandoned and surrendered animals.
