Changes have been recommended to Calgary’s pet bylaw, some to help tighten rules around surrenders, nuisance animals, and to streamline the court hearing process.

The Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw was last updated in 2021, and the Community Development Committee reviewed the latest amendments on Oct. 15, 2026.

Fourteen amendments of varying degrees of impact were put into three categories: The court process, offences and penalties, and owner accountability.

Major changes include enabling earlier intervention for animals that show aggression, adding harm to animals (instead of just harm to humans) when considering vicious animal designation, reverse onus on at-large offences, false information and obstruction rules, and an increase in potential jail time for offences (from six months to potentially one year).

“This bylaw supports public safety, animal well-being, such as the cats and dogs we have at home, and pet ownership. It does this by setting expectations for our pet owners in Calgary. It promotes safe interactions between people and animals,” said Pamela McHugh, business strategist with the City of Calgary.

“Ultimately, this is about the rules, responsibilities, and processes that guide how animal-related incidents are managed in Calgary.”

Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said the changes were common sense.

“Really common sense changes, I think, that are being proposed here by the administration, adjusting for what you’re experiencing on the ground, what you’re seeing,” he said.

“There’s nothing in there, I think, that’s any sort of red flags or any big concerns for me.”

Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers, who chaired the meeting, said that she felt the changes were straightforward.

“I believe these changes to the bylaw are necessary. They seem to also enable efficiencies within our court system, save a little bit of time, and make sure that our officers are using their time more wisely, and also just protecting our community in situations where animals are involved,” she said.

Biggest impact in false complaints: Calgary Humane Society

Brad Nichols, director of enforcement with the Calgary Humane Society (CHS) said that he’d only first learned of the changes last week when LWC contacted the organization about the story.

He said historically, the CHS had been given the opportunity to provide line-by-line feedback of proposed changes.

Still, he said there’s nothing overly concerning with the proposed changes. One area where he thinks the bylaw is being enhanced, specifically in an area they deal with, is in surrenders.

“Really coming out of the pandemic, there’s a bit of an oversaturation of pets in the community. We have a lot of people trying to surrender their animals and being put on wait lists and desperate people doing desperate things,” he said.

“We are seeing a lot of abandonments. We’re also seeing a lot of people passing off their own animals as strays. I think the wording in that obstruction section might serve to capture that and add some accountability for that type of action. At least I’m hoping so.”

That revision to the bylaw prohibits someone from providing a false name or other false information about themselves or the animal that obstructs an officer from conducting their duties.

A change that perked Nichols’ eyebrow was the removal of the word repeated from the nuisance portion of the bylaw.

“In my mind, a nuisance behaviour is one that is repeated,” Nichols said.

“To remove the word repeated in there, I’m interested to know how that’s going to be used, enforced, adjudicated, to be quite frank, and I wonder what those early interventions are when you’ve got maybe one report of barking or one report of running at large.”

Nichols said the bylaw is missing clearer rules around urban pigeons or hens, particularly those that are surrendered or abandoned. He also said the bylaw doesn’t deal with more exotic pets.

“The RPO (Responsible Pet Ownership (bylaw)) has never addressed exotic animals, and those are kept as pets fairly frequently, especially rabbits,” he said.  

“We are constantly full of rabbits from surrenders, from cruelty cases, things like that, and it just doesn’t seem to be an appetite to envelop animals other than cats and dogs into this bylaw.”

Nichols said though it is an improvement, it’s a slight one, mainly done through rewording and clarifications.

“I just I think that if there had been an opportunity to put some additional topics for discussion, that probably would have been a good use of time,” he said.

The bylaw recommendations still need final approval at an upcoming meeting of Calgary city council.