Saskatoon woman seeks animal bylaw change

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After securing unanimous support from a city council committee, Saskatoon’s Kelsey Stroeder is aware the public could be tougher to win over to the idea of a bylaw amendment limiting the number of dogs and cats households can keep.

“I really don’t want to upset regular citizens,“ Stroeder said, explaining her Jan. 10 remarks to council’s planning, development and community services committee.

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Still, she said she expects “uproar” from some who may not understand the scale and scope of what she’s asking for; she said she suggested a household limit of 10 animals, as this is unlikely to affect the vast majority of people.

Rather, she said she wants to see a limit to prevent “hoarding situations,” along with home-based animal rescues or pet breeding businesses with potentially unqualified or unscrupulous operators.

Stroeder said her call to change Saskatoon’s bylaw comes after about three years of taking care of dogs fostered from various rescue agencies operating in the city.

She noted she only takes one foster at a time, and these dogs share space with her own pup, Deigo, who chomped on a bone a short distance away at various points during an interview with the StarPhoenix.

“Once you see the neglect, you can’t unsee it,” she said, describing a recent foster that arrived into her care with signs of having been poorly treated and kept in an unsanitary environment with too many animals.

These included an eye infection, a “rancid”-smelling indentation left behind when a tight collar was removed, and fear of human contact.

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This experience combined with frequent complaints that come up in conversations with others in the animal fostering community led her to pursue change at City Hall, she said.

This month’s vote at the council committee stage directs city staff to report on a potential amendment to the animal control bylaw limiting the number of animals kept in homes. Council will have an opportunity to make a final decision when that report comes back later this year.

Stroeder said she’ll continue pursuing her proposed amendment through to a final vote from city council.

She added that she hadn’t found it difficult to get her matter before the committee, after getting some help from city staff when she attended a prior meeting.

The experience has encouraged her to potentially work at reform at the provincial level on regulation and licensing of dog breeders, she said, pointing to similar efforts in other provinces.

Advocates in Nova Scotia have called on that province’s government to act on a 2021 report recommending regulation of the dog-breeding industry.

Ontario introduced legislation in December 2023 that would make it the first province to impose minimum penalties on those caught operating puppy mills.

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The Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act, or PUPS Act, would modify Ontario’s animal welfare law to prohibit puppy mills and lead to the creation of record keeping for dogs to ensure a canine’s history can be traced.

While fostering dogs and taking on efforts at bylaw reform might not be for everyone, Stroeder said all pet owners can help improve animal welfare in Saskatoon by spaying or neutering their pets.

Animal Protection Services of Saskatchewan (APSS) enforces the provincial Animal Protection Act in Saskatoon.

APSS executive director and chief animal protection officer Don Ferguson said in an email that the agency investigates all complaints that give officers “reasonable and probable cause” to believe animals are in distress, as defined by provincial law.

The law defines an animal as in distress for reasons including unsanitary living conditions and improper food, water or shelter.

Ferguson noted that adding a numerical limit to the city’s animal control bylaw wouldn’t affect the APSS standard for complaints, but said the agency “would support a bylaw that promotes responsible animal ownership and would restrict the number of animals an individual may own unless they have applied for a breeder or kennel or cattery license.”

— With Canadian Press files

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