'Interested in the chickens': Victoria cat owner fined for trespassing feline
A Victoria cat owner is facing a $150 fine since their curious cat keeps scoping out their neighbour's chicken coop.
Victoria senior animal control officer Ian Fraser says the issue has been ongoing for a few months.
"According to the complainant, there's a cat that's visiting their property on a fairly regular basis that seems to be interested in the chickens they have in their chicken coop," he said.
"Of course, the complainant is concerned for the safety of their chickens and called us as a result."
Fraser says the cat has been reported near the chicken coop three times. After the first time, the cat was picked up by animal control and brought to the pound before it was collected by its owner.
After the third time, the owner received a $150 fine for the trespassing cat.
Fraser says while the situation can appear harmless, Victoria Animal Control gets weekly calls about wayward cats causing a disturbance.
"It's not just necessarily chickens," he said. "Cats come on to other properties and fight with [other] cats, they'll go into somebody's kitchen through a cat door and chow down on somebody else's cat food right out of their bowl."
"So there's lots of issues that trespassing cats do create," he said.
Fraser noted that on Thursday morning he received a call about cats entering someone's yard and attacking birds at their birdfeeder.
The animal control officer says if this cat keeps entering its neighbour's backyard, its owner could face more fines or a cat trap could be placed and the cat would need to be collected from the pound for a fee.
Fines for trespassing cats do not increase with each offence, Fraser says.
He adds that Victoria animal control only seeks out cats if there is a complaint.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.