At their next meeting, Highlands East council will discuss an animal control by-law.
The township’s Bylaw Enforcement Officer Kristen Boylan put forward the recommendation at the January 19th meeting.
She says this is a precautionary measure after two people moved to neighbouring Hastings Highlands and opened an exotic animal zoo.
Boylan noted that Ontario is the only province in Canada with exotic animal legislation. “At this time there is no Provincial Legislation or regulations in place to prevent a citizen from keeping an exotic animal in Ontario unless under Municipal By-law. Each Municipality must enact a by-law to define the exotic animal species and either prohibit, regulate, licence and/or all of the above within their by-law,” she added.