The city’s top dog in animal services is considering asking for a pet limit on owners who repeatedly violate the city’s responsible pet ownership bylaw.

“We would be able to put a limit on a specific residence where there were noted problems, with the person showing no willingness to do the correct thing,” explained Bill Bruce.

He said this would be done on a recurring complaint threshold regarding noise, disturbance, nuisance or care and on a case-by-case basis — similar to the service’s current powers to place restrictions on dangerous pets.

Recent incidents involving dog bites and some dogs having prior history have pushed this issued to the forefront.

“We need to have the authority to limit how many (owner can have in the interest of the person, the health of the community and safety.”  The limit would depend on a number of factors: type of pet, property size, financial resources, etc.

But Bruce wants to avoid a blanket ban on all citizens, following the service’s mantra of behaviour-based laws.

“It’s trying to create behaviour-specific corrective actions for site-specific problems that were not susceptible to lesser control.

“I’m very leering of over-regulating … I don’t think every Calgarian who’s doing a great job should be punished because one or two didn’t.”