Dimitrie's Rent Check #16 - Nippy Mutts & City Animal Control
What do you do when a dog snarls, barks and growls at you on an elevator in your building even if it is on a leash and the owner does nothing? The leashes are often longer than the elevator is wide
I've never been fond of Animal Control. They roam apartment buildings AND City Streets searching for indoor pets and cats and dogs that roam the mean streets of London looking to make our pets legal. The newly licensed beasts will generate lots of do-re-mi for the City.
Very few cities license cats. London does. I can say proudly that our two felines have been legal and legitimate since the day they set their four paws in the Forest City even though they have never been outside our four walls except for visits to the Veterinarian.
The cost is $40 a year for us. Two indoor cats. The cost for one dog is $31. We take it out of their allowance. I've always wondered how much CONTROL they do as opposed to banging on doors looking for unlicensed cats and dogs to fill the City's coffers for Pet Licensing. It's $20 for a spayed or neutered cat. I think its a bit more for a dog. No idea if iguanas, parrots, rabbits or all other creatures great and small have to be licensed in London.
I've had the misery of dealing with a sometimes unleashed dog in our complex for several years. Sometimes I'm stuck in an elevator with the little groveler as it stares at me and shows me its teeth while my arms are full. I have pleaded with its owner to leash it and control it. Sometimes it has a leash. Sometimes it is under control. Sometimes I just take the next elevator.
Sometimes I am in such a hurry that I can't. I put up with the comments from the owner about why I don't love little Precious but today I finally called Animal Control which administers the City's Licensing and Control By-laws on Animals under contract from the City of London. I had a little discussion with their dispatcher trying to explain to her that Animal Control operates at the pleasure and under direct authority of City Hall and its bureaucracy.
Essentially I was told they would do nothing as long as the pet had a leash. I repeatedly asked if I had to wait for a nice chomp on the foot while closed in an elevator but I got no answer. I have no faith in my landlord to remedy the matter but I did refer the matter to her supervisor on a voice mail. The problem with the City's Animal by-law is that it allow leashed animals to wander about 3 metres from the owner's hand. That's useless in apartments, elevators, hallways or any tight space.
The matter has been referred to my building manager who has received several complaints on this dog and its owner and he has some splainin to do to Animal Control along with its owner who has verbally fobbed me off too many times to count. Have you ever seen a dog's teeth growling at you from a few inches away? I have as I walked up the stairs from the underground parking/
There are a few unique issues here to tenants. The dispatcher repeatedly asked for the dog owners' address. I knew the building and I offered the building rep who knew her. I refused to break the cardinal rule for tenants. NEVER CONFRONT ANOTHER TENANT IN A DISPUTE, ESPECIALLY WITHOUT A WITNESS.
You cannot force the tenant to give you his/her address and you risk charges if you follow them to their unit. The dispatcher and the bright lights on Council who wrote the by-law never took that into consideration. The building manager was not good enough for her. She refused to dispatch a van. I had to depend on her negotiations with him. THAT'S SECOND RATE SERVICE FOR TENANTS. A homeowner can easily identify a house.
Secondly, tenants are routinely confined to elevators with big and small beasts with and without leashes or on long leashes. I am an animal lover with two small licensed cats but they always travel in cages. Animals are unpredictable in public. At the very least animals in apartment buildings should be muzzled and I mean all of them. Would you like looking down on Brutus as he prepares to hump your leg with no muzzle to be found while you are stuck in the elevator. One big old loveable pooch is fine 99% of the time but there are certain kinds of dogs that he detests and his personality changes on a dime. Would you like to be on an elevator when that happened? Leash or no leash.
During this protracted debate on landlord licensing this is yet another obvious sign that most City Councillors and Staff who enforce these by-laws have no clue what tenants go through. By the way, how do you think a five year old would feel if old Brutus stared him down in the elevator with or without a leash during the trip up or down. According to the Animal Control operator there was nothing she could do as long as he had a leash. I would talk about responsible pet ownership but that has gone by the wayside once someone has bought a huge dog to live in a tiny apartment and parked him in an elevator with no muzzle on and no clue about how to use a leash in a tight space. Dog Training, I doubt the dog got the proper pet food and his shots.
Under the Residential Tenancies Act tenants are allowed to have pets. Landlords are allowed to place reasonable restrictions on the size, type and number. Tenants are responsible for any damage that they cause to the building and to any other tenants and visitors. Unfortunately most tenants have no idea about this law, have never read their lease or only worry about their rights. And this is coming from a tenants' advocate.
Last time I checked the city bylaw, I could have sworn it said the pet must be ON a leash at all times. UNLESS in a place designated as off leash. There are many over here in this end of town who have their pets off a leash in a normal park, I hate it.
Parks are one issue. Standing in an elevator with Brutus or a small but determined mutt eager to knaw on your leg is another matter. Even if the dog in question is on a leash it doesn't mean their owner has control of the animal. It's a pleasant ride to the seventh floor. I'm sure other apartment dwellers know what I mean.
