Concerns over the city’s cat problem were raised during Thursday’s meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners.
In the monthly bylaw enforcement officer’s report, it was noted that there were 36 animal calls in May, bringing the total for the year to 130. In the first five months of 2018, there were just 52 incidents.
“We’re still working with the bylaw officer to determine what the best path forward is,” said Ladouceur. “It’s really important to remind owners to take proper care of their cats.”
There are some areas of the city where there are lots of stray cats on the streets. Mayor Roy Ludwig suggested talking to the Estevan Humane Society about the issue.
“You want have a solution that obviously appeases everyone, and sometimes that’s difficult to do, but it starts becoming that problematic when they’re all over the place,” said Ladouceur.
“These are people calling the police and the bylaw enforcement officer saying there are cats all over the place, and causing problems in their yards.”
Many of them are feral cats, and some of them are carrying diseases.
The bylaw enforcement officer handled 134 calls in May. In addition to the animal calls, 32 were for unkempt property inspections, 19 were for parking complaints, 16 were for parking violations and 18 were classified as “other bylaw.”
So far this year, the department has had 615 occurrences, with animal calls (130) leading the way, followed by 116 parking violations, 90 parking complaints, 85 unkempt properties and 81 snow removal notices.
This week's edition of the Mercury will have more on this story.
