There will be no exemption from prohibitions and penalties regarding cats being at large in agricultural zoning in Quinte West.
Council voted to not make the exemption at its meeting on Wednesday.
On January 22, 2025, council received a delegation that requested the city exempt properties designated as agricultural zoning and their adjacent areas within a reasonable radius (example 500 metres) from the prohibitions and penalties regarding cats at large.
In her report, Supervisor of By-Law Enforcement Carrie West outlined that the current by-law and regulations do not prohibit the use of cats for natural pest control purposes, for protecting crops, feed or other agricultural resources, within their own property.
She says the request “appears to be specifically intended to allow for the trespassing of cats onto neighbouring property.”
“To allow for an exemption for agricultural-zoned property and to further include a predefined radius around the agricultural property for exemption would expect that neighbours are to tolerate an animal on their property without any recourse, and would be difficult to measure or enforce,” West stated in her report.
