There's a new pet bylaw currently under discussion in my city.

I think there are some good points in it, such as

--requiring cat owners to license their pets as dogs are (in my old
home, both Nox and Smokey had licenses--the bits were only 6 weeks old
when we left the area)

--not allowing animals, cats or dogs, to roam around outside unattended

However, the one part of it that REALLY has me steamed is the
limitation of no more than 3 cats in a residential dwelling.

Now if this passes, our 4 would be fine as they'd be under a
grandfather clause, but honestly...if this had been in effect when we
moved here, what then?  DP HAS to go to med school in this city...I
guess we'd have had to lie and pretend the bits were one cat between
the two of them?  And risk a $500 fine if we were caught?

(When we moved in and asked if the place allowed cats, our landlord
asked us how many.  We said two.  We only HAD two, we only PLANNED to
have two.  The landlord is still unaware of the bits...however, they
never explicity SAID more than two was a problem.)

I think it's ridiculous.  The issue is not having 4 cats in an
apartment, but whether those 4 cats are properly cared for.  One cat
will stink if you never clean its litter box...four cats, with four
boxes cleaned daily, don't stink at all.

I understand why it's unwise to have 10+ cats in a two bedroom
apartment, but a large HOUSE could properly, hygenically, safely house
ten cats if the owners were willing to put the appropriate amount of
effort/time/money into their care.

(The limit does not apply to kittens under 8 weeks old so a person is
fine if their queen has a litter of 6; however, once they hit 8
weeks....that person would be 4 cats over the allowable limit...)

My old city was considering a similar limit but it got voted down.  I
can only hope this one gets voted down too.  I'll be writing a letter
to the city this weekend.

I swear this bill was created by people who have no idea what it is
like to live with multiple cats.  It's like the people who came over to
our place and exclaimed, with shock, "We would never know you had 4
cats if we hadn't seen them all!"  It's because they expected our place
to be stinky with cat hair in piles everywhere!  Gross!  As if we
wouldn't clean up after our animals!

--Fil