Pet licences removed in Morinville, replaced with custom ID tags

Pet owners in Morinville will no longer have to fill out paperwork and pay to licence their pets, though there will still be rules.

Annual pet licences will no longer be required in Morinville, Alta. starting next year. Instead, all cats and dogs will have to wear another visible form of identification – a tag that has the pet owner’s current contact information.

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Council in Morinville, a town just north of Edmonton, approved the decision to change the Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw in August. The bylaw outlines requirements and guidelines for pet owners.

“This just provides (pet owners) so much more ease, and hopefully gets more commitment to make sure people have tags on their animals and (to) get them home as quick as we can,” Morinville community peace officer Sgt. William Norton said on Wednesday.

He added that a custom tag is a “win-win for residents.”

“They can provide their own tag, their own customization, their own size – instead of the one-size-fits-all that we provide – and … they can do so at their own convenience,” Norton explained.

The current cost to purchase a pet licence is $100, with an annual renewal fee of $10. Norton said the fees collected were used for general revenue to support pet ownership and to maintain the pet database. He said the loss of funds was considered when making the decision to change the bylaw.

“That loss of revenue wasn’t substantial enough and it definitely didn’t outweigh the convenience factor of having residents not have to come all the way down to the town office, register their animals and then have to utilize the tags that we provide them,” he said.

Norton said local animal rescue organizations and neighbouring communities like Spruce Grove and Strathcona County, which have no pet licences, were consulted.

“Having your information engraved on them – a little tag that says pet’s name, owner’s phone number – (or) any kind of identification that we can help get them back to you, is phenomenal,” Sarah Burke, with Second Chance Animal Rescue Society (SCARS), said.

Burke also said that a microchip is another “great tool” for finding pets, saying SCARS has had several recent animals in its care that were reunited with their owners thanks to the implanted technology.

“We had a cat come in a few months ago. We scanned the cat for a microchip. We were able to run it through the system and pull up ownership information. They consented to having their phone number released, so we contacted them, and they came and picked their cat up within the next couple of hours,” Burke said.

When the bylaw changes take effect on Jan. 1, all existing pet licences will expire. Municipal cat and dog licensing and licence tags will no longer be available for purchase after Dec. 31, according to Morinville town officials.

All other pet bylaws remain in place, including fines for pets found in public without an identification tag.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson