Pets OK BC reaches 10000 in petition

[Fancy]

Because she has to have a stupid dog?? Clearly you never owned a pet and if u have, poor animals...... I would never get rid of my animals....there is always a way...

Good grief - slam a poster because they think a child takes precedence over an animal? If someone can't find a way and makes their child suffer because of it - poor child.

[flamingfingers]

However, you may be in a minority position, otherwise, why is such a petition floating around demanding that owners MUST take in pets?

I have been a homeowner; I have been a landlord; I am now a renter and I understand the rights of a landlord (some misinformed landlords overstep their bounds for sure and need educating) and I am well versed on the rights of renters.

BUT renters do not OWN the property and mistakenly feel it is their 'right' to do whatever they wish to do on that property. They need re-education. Just because they 'want' a pet with them is not sufficient reason to force a landlord to rent to them.

I presently live in a pet-free apartment (my dog had to be put to sleep at age 17) and I am happy that there are no dogs barking on balconies or racing around in the halls. There are very few children in the building and that suits me just fine too. Sure, I would 'like' a small pet for company but rules are rules and I will live with them and have no resentment.

[Fancy]

That didn't answer the question.

[flamingfingers]

^^Second paragraph.

[Catsumi]

This brings back a memory of standing at a checkout at grocery store where, ahead of me, was a cart with a huge bag of dog food in it and not much else. Mom and boy child wearing shabby clothing. Boy asks, "mom, can I have a chocolate bar?"...she sez, "no, we can't afford it"

Guess this is the same mentality that would rather keep their children in dodgy homes rather than give up a costly dog feeding project.

Canada has 8 million dogs and 6 million cats at last count. That is a lot of protein being dumped (parks, roadways, lawns, neighbours' gardens) while the kids go hungry and worse, homeless.

Now, I await the arrows of outrage!!

[flamingfingers]

A choice between my dog and my kid is no choice at all. Not to say I will buy my kid a chocolate bar, but I will buy him//her solid nutritious food that I will cook for him/her instead of $60 worth of food for a dog. Choices.

[Fancy]

I understand what you are trying to say flamingfingers but I still don't think that's why the petition. I know of renters that do understand it's not their property but know once they've taken residence it's hard to evict them. People with animals (whether they care about them or not) want to make a stand/point regardless of how it can affect others. Just because they can, not because they should.

[flamingfingers]

It really is not that hard to evict a tenant for cause. As a landlord you need to follow the steps outlined by the RTO and if necessary get help from an advisor that will guide the landlord in dispute resolution. The landlord will always win if he can show the tenants breeched terms of the tenancy agreement.

If the rental agreement (form obtained from RTO) included a condition that prohibited pets in the unit and was signed by the renters, then if the renters went out an got a dog/cat/parakeet/snake, they are in contravention of the agreement. The renters are then subject to eviction unless they get rid of the 'pet'...

[flamingfingers]

However it mystifies me why a renter would even want to be involved with an eviction - that can easily be traced by future landlords and cut the renters off at the pockets.

Play by the rules.

[Fancy]

Too many horror stories of trying to evict tenants - it's never that simple.

[Catsumi]

It can take months to evict giving them lots of time to carry on with whatever behaviour triggered the eviction.

[Smurf]

In the meantime hope and pray you don't have a vindictive renter in your apartment. I have seen what my wife had to go through to evict a tenant and the company she worked for had lawyers on staff to help. I was not pleasant.

I don't believe anyone is saying all pet owners are bad, most are not. But it only takes one or two to make the whole landlord thing go sour.

[Mark5]

Pets OK BC announced today that they have reached their goal of 10,000 signatures for their petition to change the no pets rental restrictions in B.C.

Pets OK BC is a movement advocating for the abolition of unreasonable pet restrictions in rental housing across the province of B.C.

“We think families with pets should have equal access to housing, equal opportunity, and not face discrimination when it comes to looking for a place to live,” says the organization’s Eliot Galan in an announcement on the Pets OK BC Facebook.

It is not really discrimination. People can choose to get a pet or not. I rented for years when I had a dog and it was really awful. Hardly any places to rent. I would have to live in run down places because those landlords were lucky to get anyone to rent to or the landlords were animal lovers and were sympathetic. I finally had to have my faithful companion put to sleep because I couldn`t find a place to live that would take pets. He was near the end of his life anyway. The thought of that still hurts after 27 years. So I have some sympathy.
However, since I still have to rent, I will not get a dog or cat. An apartment or someone else's property is no place for a dog or cat anyway. There are already way to many dogs and cats as it is. People who buy pets have no real idea what goes into looking after them. So the dog suffers as well as people who rent out their properties and the neighbours. If this law passed I expect to see rents go up or some kind of large security deposit needed to account for the damages.
So my advice is if you are a renter, do not get a pet.

[Catsumi]

Just being curious, today I looked up "how many dogs are there in Kelowna area"?

A jaw-dropping 25,000 ! (This figure is from licensed dogs only).

Add in equal number of cats, just to be fair, 25,000, for total of 50,000

Begs the question of how many is enough.

Remember how people were calling for a deer cull just recently? How many of them are around town?

[vegas1500]

Because she has to have a stupid dog?? Clearly you never owned a pet and if u have, poor animals...... I would never get rid of my animals....there is always a way...

Good grief - slam a poster because they think a child takes precedence over an animal? If someone can't find a way and makes their child suffer because of it - poor child.

But it's ok to slam her? We all have choices and opinions, sorry you're not ok with that.