St James PC wants Keeping of Animals Act amended

Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:

Secretary/Manager of the St James Parish Council, Gerald Lee, has recommended that the municipality prepare a resolution requesting an amendment of the Keeping of Animals Act of 1979.

Lee made his comments during the regular monthly meeting of the St James Parish Council last week Thursday.

He said that at a recent subcommittee meeting of the council concerns were raised as to whether it was appropriate for persons to keep certain breeds of dogs, particularly pit bulls, because of the supposed dangers associated with those animals. Pit bulls have come under scrutiny in recent times following several reported cases of children being attacked by them.

"It also looked at the noise nuisance that would come from persons having dogs and also from persons who are rearing dogs in communities in what could be considered a commercial venture, and also any other risk associated with having (a large) number of dogs," Lee said.

BROAD-BASED LEGISLATION NEEDED

"We looked at whether we could amend the Keeping of Animals regulations, which is already on the books, but it was not adequate to deal with all the areas of concern. And so, what was decided out of the committee is that we need to enact new legislation to capture all the areas of concern because this legislation would have to be a broad-based legislation to touch on all the areas," Lee added.

The Keeping of Animals Act includes, among other things, an order restricting the keeping of animals in certain areas, need to have licences for the keeping of certain animals in restricted areas, penalties for allowing animals to be at large, power of police in relation to animals found in certain areas, as well as penalties for obstructing the police and authorised officers.

Lee told the meeting that any change to the law would rest with the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, under whose jurisdiction all parish councils fall.

"And so the process involves, indeed, for us as a council to pass the relevant resolution and send that to the legal department in our ministry. They would develop the concept paper for submission to Parliament and, thereafter, Parliament would give drafting instruction for the legislation to come in force," he said.

"So at the appropriate time, the notice of the resolution will be given and, thereafter, the resolution will be tabled to this council for consideration so we can send it off to the ministry," he added.