Earlier this week, several cows were killed after wandering into the path of a transport truck on Highway 15 in Kingston.
No charges were laid, and the transport driver escaped unharmed. Meanwhile, the city is looking at making a bylaw change in light of other complaints about wandering livestock.
But come Sept. 14, as part of the animal bylaw review, city staff will recommend that livestock be included to the “at large” definition that applies to other animals like dogs and hens.
One local farmer says it’s an issue he deals with often with one of his neighbours, and despite his pleas for change, nothing has been done.
“If this happened once, OK, it’s a mistake — somebody left a gate open, a storm blew a fence down, these things happen — but when it’s almost every other week that you’ve got something on our property, you have got to say, enough is enough,” said John Wernham, a farmer on Highway 2.
Just recently, Wehnham posted a tweet of a cow, a calf and a donkey running through his yard.
Wernham owns an apple farm and is a member of Kingston’s Rural Advisory Committee. He says there are a number of safety and environmental concerns when it comes to these wandering trespassers. And he says fencing problems are usually the culprit.
Case in point: his neighbours, who got a cow about two months ago. He says they put up a fence, except it’s upside down. he low gaps are at the top.”
The property owner next door says he is fully aware of the problem.
“We are going to fix the fence,” Elano Balayo said. “I’ll be there Monday. I’ll ask people to put some posts to secure the area and we’ll put some posts in to run the electric fence.”
Balayo says he will make amends and make sure a scene like this doesn’t happen again.
Wernham says he’s called Kingston police several times, but police have yet to respond to a request for confirmation.
As far as the city is concerned, bylaw officers have no enforcement power when it comes to owners who routinely fail to keep their animals penned in.
But that could change if the city accepts the new recommendation to add livestock under its definition of animals at large.
“We noticed that livestock was not covered by the at-large regulation and there have been some situations like this, historically, in the past that have occurred,” said Dan Hazell, licensing and enforcement supervisor with the city of Kingston.
Still, the process will not be immediate, Hazell says.
“If it’s passed at that committee, the next stop along the way would be to go to city council for a review and approval of the annual bylaw.”
Hazell did point out that there are currently city bylaws on fence quality, and invited anyone dealing with fencing issues to contact the city.
“One of our officers would be happy to go attend and look at the fence in question. And if it was found to be in disrepair, we would then reach out to that property owner, to make them aware and issue the property management process to get that fence in good repair,” Hazell said.
The changes to the animal bylaw will be presented to the Arts, Recreation and Community Policies Committee.
If passed, livestock owners could face initial tickets of $125, but repeat offenders could be liable for fines up to $5,000 if convicted in court.
— with files from Global News’ Alexandra Mazur
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