Council releases draft livestock by-law

By Jonathan Riley

Digby Courier

NovaNewsNow.com

Guy and Cornelia Melville keep four horses on a few hilly acres in Freeport overlooking Grand Passage and Peter’s Island. Instead of a front lawn, the Melvilles have a riding paddock and other small enclosures fenced with rustic poles.

Neighbours and tourists alike often to stop to pet Lace, an all white mare who is pregnant and stays in the front yard by the driveway. “People just love you, don’t they?” says Guy, stroking the mare’s face. “You wouldn’t believe the people who stop by. There was a woman visiting someone here in the village, she’d never seen a horse before.”

Melville moved to Freeport on Long Island five years ago from Saskatchewan and finds the community is horse-friendly. “To hear people talk, a lot of them have had horses. Most of the middle-aged people and older are familiar with horses. ‘Dad had a horse,’ they say or they had one themselves.”

Melville is worried that tradition of keeping animals is not well reflected in a draft by-law concerning livestock in residential areas proposed by the Municipality of Digby. “They are quite specific about structures and setbacks and sideyards. When I look at the measurements and setbacks, I can’t think of any existing situations here that would be allowed.”

Melville says he has heard that existing “situations” will be grandfathered but that is not spelled out in the draft by-law. It does spell out that existing buildings may be “enlarged, reconstructed, repaired or renovated” providing those changes don’t cause the building to exceed the by-law more than it already does. And it does list “existing commercial livestock operations” under permitted uses but nowhere does it refer to “existing non-commercial” situations.

Deputy warden Jimmy MacAlpine sits on the planning advisory committee that worked on the by-law. His understanding is that new by-law won’t adversely affect people already keeping animals. “Everybody on the P.A.C. agrees that people have to be allowed to keep animals - people have traditionally kept animals on their property for their own use. What we’ve done is put a limit on how many you can have.”

MacAlpine says council began work on the by-law initially because of complaints about mink farming but they didn’t feel it was fair to single out one sector or industry and so have attempted a by-law that covers all livestock. “This is not an anti-farming by-law. The issues did come to light when people started putting up farms in areas that were more residential but farmers have to be afforded their rights too.”

MacAlpine stresses that nothing at this stage is written in stone. He is looking forward to hearing people’s comments at two public meetings next week. The draft by-law is available at the Municipal offices. MacAlpine says the draft is the result of a lot of work including public meetings and consultation with the farming community. He feels they have created a “pretty good document.”

Melville says there are other things that need to be spelled out – for example, the by-law does not indicate if adjacent lots can be counted when determining how many animals a property owners is allowed.

He’ll be at the meetings to hear what’s going on and to ask some questions. “I think a lot of people don’t realize the extent of what they face with this by-law. I think given the scope and the effect it could have, I hope this is to be considered an early draft. I think some of it needs to be given more thought.”

jriley@digbycourier.ca

PUBLIC MEETINGS

Tuesday, March 13 - Digby at the Municipal offices

Thursday, March 15 - Weymouth Legion

Both meetings include an open-house from noon until 7 p.m. followed by a question and answer session at 7 p.m.