MINTO – Minto council has received numerous letters from concerned citizens about dog kennel operations in the area and how they contribute to the growing problem of dog brokers and poor living conditions for dogs.
Darlene Eschlboeck, a licenced breeder in Clifford, wrote to council asking them to reconsider the number of licences they give and how many dogs are allowed at each kennel.
Currently there is no cap on the number of dog kennel licences the Town of Minto can give out to those who meet requirements.
One of the letter writers, Kim de Koning, mentioned the recent incident at Pearson Airport where dozens of dogs were found to have died on route from Ukraine. She went on to say this opened her eyes to what she calls dog trafficking and puppy mills.
"After the flight came in from Toronto, I have come to learn that many farms in Minto hold a 'kennel licence,'" de Koning wrote. "Some of these farmers house these poor dogs in barns and truck trailers with no proper ventilation. These poor dogs do not have a chance to lead a normal life with proper socialization."
"Please do not allow man's best friend to be treated like livestock," Minto resident Stacey Jennings wrote to council. "It sickens me to think that the town I was born and raised in would allow this."
In a phone call, Eschlboeck acknowledged that there are many Canadian Kennel Club registered breeders in the region but said there are issues with operations selling to less than reputable brokers. She said this creates a problematic situation for purchasers.
“They have no health guarantee, they sell to brokers so it’s anonymous, they have no recourse,” Eschlboeck said. “These dogs are not identified or microchipped.”
She is concerned about how many dogs involved in this end up in rescue operations. Or worse.
“The breeding dogs are bred for their life until they can’t be bred anymore,” Eschlboeck said, claiming that “a lot of them are shot when they’re done.”
CAO Derrick Thomson took a moment to address the public watching the meeting.
“We take allegations of animal cruelty very seriously,” Thomson said. “We will go out and investigate and we will bring experts with us to do those investigations. If people have concerns about abuse of an animal, we will go out and we will investigate.”
Eschlboeck stressed she doesn’t want to tarnish the image of credible breeders.
“The bottom line is why do we have to fight to know this is wrong?” Eschlboeck asked. “Why do we have to fight to know that a barn full of dogs is wrong?”
Ultimately, Eschlboeck doesn’t want dog breeding to be treated like a livestock operation.
Councillor Mark MacKenzie pulled the correspondence out at Tuesday afternoon’s council meeting because of the overwhelming feedback from the public.
He said he hasn’t heard of a lot of violations and trusts bylaw officers are thorough in their inspections but questioned if now is the time to look at it.
“Our bylaw is a good bylaw but public input is now asking us to tighten it up a bit because of the dog trafficking,” MacKenzie said to council. “Now is a good opportunity to reduce this growing business of trafficking through these brokers.”
MacKenzie said they should set a maximum number of kennels in the town and number of dogs allowed in the kennels. At the time, there are three more applications waiting to be approved for rezoning.
He said he was particularly concerned with the town being labelled a puppy mill capital.
Mayor George Bridge said the rezoning costs $9,000 and changing the bylaw could complicate the current applications. He also said he feels the town is being mislabelled.
Chief building official Terry Kuipers said the applicants would lose a substantial amount of money in application fees if they were to withdraw.
Kuipers defended the area’s breeders and said the town has never had any issue with kennel owners providing proper documentation during inspections. He has also seen only three complaints in 17 years with the town and two were found to be unsubstantiated.
Deputy mayor David Turton said the issue isn’t with registered breeders.
“Our issues are with people that aren’t registered,” Turton said. “If we put a cap on a number of kennels, that’s not going to do anything for us.”
MacKenzie put forward a motion of reconsideration because the bylaw was updated recently in 2019. He said he felt they should attempt to make a dent in unscrupulous dog brokers' business.
The motion failed to pass as a majority of council members said they felt the issue was unfounded in their town.
