Off-leash dog fines worth $2,800 issued by City of Fernie in last quarter

City of Fernie bylaw issued $2,800 worth of fines for off-leash dogs in Annex Park between May and July this year.

In a report to the committee of the whole on August 15, bylaw officer Robyn Leach said that the park was an area they’d been focusing on for that quarter.

“(Annex Park) has been a problem area that we really wanted to work hard on addressing,” she said. With Annex Park closed for works as of mid-July, bylaw will be focusing elsewhere for the third quarter.

In documents submitted, bylaw said that two of those fines were fines for obstruction, while two dogs were impounded and released back to their owners within three hours.

Within the city, there is only one off-leash dog park, being the Fernie Railyard Dog Park, which is operated by the Fernie Pets Society. The second location, the open area at the northern end of Annex Park (where most of the fines were issued) has been designated as on-leash only since 2020.

Leach also reported that they attended two aggressive dog calls, one on 2nd Ave where a dog bit a woman who required stitches for her injuries, and another at the Fernie Mobile Home Park that resulted in the voluntary euthanization of a dog for previous aggressive behaviour.

In other areas of focus, bylaw gave out 26 warning tickets and 56 fines in relation to parking, mostly on 2nd Ave.

Under building bylaws, the city issued two stop-work orders in the quarter, and has made progress on its encroachments enforcement.

“After a long month of notifications both through social media and person to person bylaw has been able to identify various properties and have begun on gaining compliance with each,” reads the report.

“Many property owners have been very cooperative in removing items and initiating the process. Very little push back from the public to date. Encroachment compliance strategy will continue through till September 1st by which time all properties are expected to be into compliance.”

For the full report, click here.

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