Not another bylaw!!!

[Gemmy]

Hi gang,

I posted something about this in the bird club thread but thought that it should actually be brought up front so everyone can see it.

Oshawa, Ontario, is renewing their animal bylaw and, like oh so many cities, they don't realize the ramifications that certain words can cause. Their bylaw draft which can be seen at http://www.oshawa.ca/documents/respo...owner11-96.pdf states that no one is allowed to own an exotic animal. Although the list of exotic animals that are banned do not contain parrots or pet birds, all pet birds are considered as an exotic animal. Because of this confusion (loophole?), our pet birds are in danger.

What would be nice if we, as responsible bird owners, go to their website at http://www.oshawa.ca and, after clicking on CONTACT US, click on the email links for the councilors and the mayor and educate them about how wrong that word is. Do not be rude or threatening; we do not need them to vote for it as is in spite of us but educate them how much that word can be dangerous. The fate of our birds hang on that word.

If you need more information, please contact me at antler3795 @ rogers.com (please remove the spaces around the @ sign). So far, I don't know any more because I was only called about this a 1/2 hour before the meeting and I live about an hour away. I would have been there for sure if I had prior knowledge of it. Well, there's always a 2nd or 3rd meeting and I'm going to make sure I go to those.

--Denise

[Gemmy]

I got a little bit more information. It's worse than I thought. The city wants to license pet stores and says that they want to designate everyone who sells 3 birds or more as a pet store. Can you believe that?? I'm going to try to get a copy of the draft as soon as possible since the draft that I found, dated Feb 2005, is not the current one, apparently.

--Denise