Yorkton Bylaw Division promotes responsible dog ownership

YORKTON – Everyone and their dogs were at Wiggly Field Dog Park on Thursday evening to learn about the care that comes with owning the cherished pets.

"Today we're promoting some responsible dog ownership," said Jordan Russell, Special Constable/Community Safety Officer with the City of Yorkton.

Russell was there to answer questions for dog owners and had a laptop onsite to register the pets if their owner's were interested in doing so.

"We have a couple slideshows going on with our computer and with our iPad – if you want to license your dog today or learn a little bit more on how to license," said Russell, adding, "a lot of people come into the city – they're unsure if they need to license a dog, so we kind of give them that heads up – it gives people some education on things like that."

"We try to promote keeping your dogs on a leash – not this park especially, but we were at Logan Green yesterday, so at a park like that we try and promote people to keep their dogs on a leash," said Russell.

Russell said that the Bylaw Division has had complaints in the past about people running their dogs without a leash on Logan Green and noted that people aren't always aware of the law.

"Outside of designated leash-free areas, we ask that you keep your dog on a leash. This includes the walk to and from the dog parks," read a statement on the City of Yorkton's website.

"This is the first time ever that the city has run a program such as this, so we want to show our presence, we want people to ask questions – a lot of people always have questions about responsible dog ownership," said Russell, adding, "a lot of first time pet owners – they're new to it so they want to have a little bit more knowledge and education on how they can take care of their pet – some of the bylaws regarding animal control and things such as that."

Russell went on to detail the benefits of licensing the pet.

"The main benefit for registering a dog – getting a license – let's say that dog happens to attack something...when we receive a dog attack complaint we want to check to make sure this dog has its shots [to see] if it is a registered dog in the first place," said Russell, noting, "if it attacks somebody – we have a record – that's usually the biggest one."

"If it gets lost we also have records – when we take the licenses, we get the address of the homeowner and the contact information – so let's say somebody happens to find a loose dog running around downtown [if it] has a collar and a tag we're able to contact that individual and let them know that a dog was at large," said Russel.