Nearly a year after city council allowed residents to keep hawks and falcons in the community, city administration is finally updating the bylaw and removing those two birds as prohibited animals.
This was in response to a presentation on Oct. 10, 2023, from local falconer Brandon Kobelsky, and Rick Bryne, president of the Saskatchewan Falconry Association, as Kobelsky wanted a bylaw exception to keep a raptor in the city.
During the Sept. 9, 2024, executive committee meeting, council voted 5-2 to have city administration bring an amendment for the bylaw to the next regular meeting so council can consider approving it.
Councillors Heather Eby and Dawn Luhning were opposed.
Bylaw update
City hall has recommended several changes, such as:
- Adding definitions for falcon, falconry, hawk and licensed falconer
- Licensed falconers may keep a raptor within city limits as long as he/she provides proof that he/she is licensed
- Raptors must be kept in a permanently covered enclosure that does not exceed three metres in height and is not less than 25 square metres in size per adult hawk/falcon
- The shelter must be sufficient if housing more than one animal, securely locked, and meet other applicable provincial legislative standards
- No manure can accumulate on the premises
- The handler must always supervise the animal when the latter is out of its enclosure
- The premises and enclosure must meet the requirements of provincial health and sanitation legislation
Meanwhile, the city has not received a permit application or issued a permit for the keeping of racing pigeons in years, while such animals do not appear to be a current activity within Moose Jaw, a council report said.
City administration searched the provincial corporate registry and found that the Moose Jaw Racing Pigeon Club had been struck, while the Band City Racing Pigeon Club was likely never properly incorporated because the search produced no results for it, the document continued.
Administration added that council could delete the section about pigeons if so desired.
Council discussion
City officials met with Kobelsky to discuss his exemption to keep a falcon while they also made the community conservation officer aware of this change, said Andrew Svenson, director of legislative services/city solicitor.
While the municipality can amend its bylaw to allow this, it’s the province that issues the captive wildlife licence for falconry purposes, he pointed out.
“The conservation officer noted that it’s pretty rare to find someone keeping a hawk or falcon in city limits. That happens more in rural settings,” Svenson added.
Mayor Clive Tolley expressed confusion about why city administration suggested deleting the section about pigeons, saying he didn’t understand the argument for it. Moreover, he wondered if administration was confident that neither racing club existed.
Svenson replied that the bylaw’s racing pigeon provisions are no longer applicable since this activity doesn’t appear to exist anymore, those groups are defunct and don’t appear in the Corporate Registry, and the city hasn’t received any permit applications. So, that is why administration suggested erasing that section.
“I think that there’s activity that’s not being registered (and) not being organized by a club,” said Tolley. “And we’ve got people coming from around the world to live in our community who may see this as … something they’re interested in doing.”
Instead of removing the clause, Tolley thought amendments could be made to address it, considering he allegedly sees racing pigeons throughout the community.
The next executive committee meeting is Monday, Sept. 23.
