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By James Peters

Two Dog Limit

New City of Kamloops three-dog adjudication process working well: councillor

May 27, 2019 | 4:46 PM

KAMLOOPS — The procedural change that removed dog bylaw variance applications from Kamloops council is working well, according to one councillor.

A Kamloops bylaw restricts locals from having more than two dogs. Previously, owners hoping to keep a third dog would appear before council to argue for a variance.

In April, council approved a process change that will see applications adjudicated by staff according to a matrix of criteria including barking complaints, aggression complaints, etc.

Councillor Mike O’Reilly says two applicants have applied through the new process. One was approved, and the other decided to withdraw after seeing the variance criteria. That owner adopted their third dog to someone else.

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“Where this all stemmed from was a little bit of housekeeping. But looking back statistically, in the last eight years there have been 32 three-dog variance applications come forward to council, and 31 of those have passed. So this is just streamlining the process a little bit,” said O’Reilly.

In addition to a leaner process, O’Reilly says it also removes the prospect of appearing before council to argue for your third dog — something that can be an intimidating and emotional experience.

“It also makes it a little more fair for the applicant so they know what the parameters are – what’s going to be able to allow them to have a third dog or not,” said O’Reilly. “That just makes it a little bit easier for them to decide whether they want to have a third dog.”

Kamloops has occasionally been criticized for its two-dog limit. The City of Kelowna, for example, allows three dogs. Some jurisdictions do not restrict the number of dogs and instead rely on complaints and bylaw officer patrols to come across potentially untenable situations.

O’Reilly says Kamloops is not contemplating a change.

“We haven’t had that discussion. As you know, we’re trying to densify more and lots are getting smaller. To just have an open gate to say, ‘Hey three, four, five dogs — that’s fine.’ That’s not something I think council is interested in looking at at this point.”