A Montreal couple says a city animal control officer barked up the wrong tree by fining them $441 for not having proper tags for their Yorkie during a walk around Beaver Lake on Saturday.
“I was really mad, I was not happy at all,” Fred Gaube told CTV News, recalling the run-in he and his wife Anouk Rees had with an animal control officer on Saturday.
“I thought he would give me a warning or something like that and then I ended up getting a $441 fine,” he explained, adding that while Teddy did have his ID tags on, he hadn't been registered with the city.
Owners have always been required to register their pets with their borough, but with the passing of the controversial pit bull-restricting bylaw, the city is enforcing the licensing of dogs and cats much more strictly.
Registering sterilized dogs costs $25, versus $60 for non-sterilized pooches. Anyone caught without proper registration for their animals can be fined between $300 to $600, even for a first offence.
Rees and Gaube maintain they are willing to register Teddy, but say a $441 fine is a steep price to pay for not registering a small dog.
Animal rescuer Maggie Shuter has a bigger worry. She says that more pets could be abandoned because of high municipal fines.
“There should be some kind of notices when you walk in saying ‘Please note that if you’re going to be walking your dog here, you need to have a license to do so,’” she said, rather than fining pet owners without explaining the rules.