Animal Control Law Update

There’s an update to the animal control law and the elimination of the oldest by-law still remaining on the books. Through a recent Mohawk Council Resolution at a Legislative Session, there was the approval of the updated Kahnawà:ke Animal Control Law. The request to the Council of Chiefs was to enact the Kahnawà:ke Animal Control Law, and repeal and replace the 2002 Kahnawà:ke Animal Control Law. Lloyd Phillips is the  Commissioner of Public Safety:

“The Animal Control Law was last updated over 2o years ago and since that time there was a lot of evolution in the community in terms of needs and desires and community members, mainly around concerns about dogs. That was initially addressed and looked at, how we can update the law to make sure it’s better enforceable, clearer language and also empowering the Animal Control officers to have clear authority to act when they need to get involved.”

The other purpose of the request for change was to ask the Kahnawa:ke Legislative Commission to be consulted regarding the repeal of the ‘Pigs At Large Law’:

“Many years ago a lot of people had pigs and farm animals on their property, around their home and that was legal however it was illegal to have your pigs running through other peoples yards and creating havoc, so they created a ‘Pigs at Large’ Law, where it was clear that you had to keep your pig confined to your yard, in a proper manner and it laid the ground work for having pound keepers appointed that would actually enforce the law if in this case your pig was running at large.”