Raise the Hammer

Speaking of by-laws, I found a new one on the Hamilton web site not long after Council's discussion about amending the Hamilton Animal By-Laws & adopting the Calgary Model.(Which Council did not do. They'd rather spend money to warehouse animals, & kill them. It would have saved tax payers tons of money to implement even part of the Calgary Model, but hey,..It's only Your Money! To paraphrase it: A dog owner could get a $10,000.00 fine for walking their dog (leashed, licensed, pooper scooped & well behaved) with 100? meteres any school yard, designated sports field, or playground, no matter if: School was out, the sports field was not in use in the Winter, or it was later in the evening, & no children were in the playground area. No fences or designation need be in place to enforce the by-law. You have to take a measuring tape to ensure that the sidewalk you are on is 100? meters from any of these park facilities. (since I'd pass through all 3 types in my local park, I guess I could be fined $30,000.00 for one trip?)

We are very green space poor in all of Hamilton, 'Burbs included. Almost all parks have been designated as one or all of these 3 types of recreational areas. So you can now get a $10,000.00 fine for walking across a park with your dog to the local variety store get a carton of milk? What other 'crimes' would merit a $10,000.00 fine? Vehicular Homicide? A 3rd. conviction of drunk/impaired driving? Arson with serious property damage? I have since checked for this new by-law on the Hamilton web site & have not been able to find it again. So did somebody decide this was 'Overkill'? Or is that by-law just lurking like a great white shark, waiting to catch somebody for committing the 'unspeakable crime of walking a leashed, licensed dog, with pooper-scooper bags @ the ready, @ 8 p.m. to get some milk'? If anyone asks, "Why spend tax $$ on dog parks & leash frees?" maybe this is your answer? Idiotic fines for none-crimes? I guess that fine can be rationalized as 'fair' if there is a dog park- 10 miles away?

Comment edited by D. Shields on 2012-12-15 12:23:09