Pet owners are being reminded by Weyburn Police Service you are responsible for the behavior of your animals in public and at home.

 "In general, the Dog Bylaw is set up to control the animals both dogs and cats. It's referred to as the 'Dog Bylaw' but it does have controls for cats as well in it, in the city," said Inspector Rod Stafford, Weyburn Police Service.

The "Dog Bylaw" covers areas such as barking, keeping animals on your property and keeping them under control when they are not on your property.

Weyburn Police have had a couple of incidents where dogs have become loose from their yard, not under their owner's control or knowledge. They inflicted serious injury on their neighbor's animals when they got into their yard.

"In a very recent case two responsible pet owners were out walking their animals on a leash, the one dog took offense to the other dog and was able to nip at it causing some injury to the dog. The bylaw does not allow for any of that kind of stuff. It is an offense to not have the animal under your control. That doesn't necessarily mean on a leash, you need to be able to control its activities and its aggressiveness if it comes to that and there are sanctions under the Bylaw if that doesn't happen should we choose to lay a charge," said Inspector Stafford.

"The worse thing, of course, is that nobody wants to see their pet injured and I'm sure they don't want to see their animal injure another pet causing vet bills and that, which can have some civil implications over who pays the bill when there's a violation. In a serious enough case, it could rise to the level of a criminal offense," he added.

The normal course of action in a criminal case is for the Crown Prosecutor to have offending animals to be destroyed when it becomes necessary.

Inspector Stafford also explained that the Dog Bylaw covers "Excessive Barking. "It's not restricted like some of the time restrictions under the general noise Bylaw and of course, a lot of people are not aware that their animal barks. they go to work and their dog is happy but as soon as they are gone the dog starts to miss that human interaction and starts to bark and there's nobody at home to tell it not to."

If people want police action due to a neighbors dog excessively barking, and are willing to make a statement in court, they can document the details such as time and date and report to the Weyburn Police.

Weyburn has an off leash park but even there, dog owners are responsible for the conduct of their animals and there can be ramifications for the owners if a dog attacks another dog.