Dog poop, ‘defund the police,’ and sink holes: we can finally tell you what Hamiltonians are FOI-ing
Hamiltonians sure are dogged when it comes to sniffing out information about animal activity in the city.
At least, they file a lot of FOIs related to dogs.
In May, The Spectator filed a freedom-of-information (FOI) request asking for a list of all freedom-of-information requests filed with the City of Hamilton between Jan. 1, 2019 and May 14, 2021. After an initial rejection, followed by an appeal to Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, seven months later, in January, we finally got the records.
Dogs were, unexpectedly, a standout theme.
In more than two dozen of the hundreds of requests, Hamiltonians sought information about everything from dog attacks in the city to animal complaints at specific residences to dogs surrendered to animal services to barking dogs" at specific addresses to dogs pooping.
A copy of records related to a complaint sometime in Sep 2019 or Oct 2019 regarding a dog defecating on neighbour's property (specified address). Dog resides at (specified address)," reads one request, partially redacted by the city.
Another reads: A copy of all records concerning complaints of a barking dog at (specified address) for the period beginning January 1, 2019 to present - Feb. 11/20."
Who filed these requests? A disgruntled neighbour perhaps? The records we received don't say.
The why" is also unclear.
A city spokesperson said they don't know the reasons why people file specific FOIs, but they assume a majority of the animal FOIs requested are related to evictions and civil matters."
What the city does make publicly available is non-identifying data about who is making the requests.
In 2020, of the 167 general records FOI requests filed that year, 97 came from individuals/the public, 48 from businesses, 10 from media, eight from individual by agent" and four from association/group," according to an annual report.
In 2019, of the 185 requests submitted, 102 were filed by individuals/the public, 64 by businesses, 13 from media and six from individual by agent."
Anyone can submit an FOI, which must be accompanied by a $5 fee.
The records also do not say whether the data was released fully, in part or not at all. Nor do we know how much the city charged individuals to access the records.
Other notable FOIs included in the records The Spec received:
- Records relating to a sinkhole and sewer blockage;
- Records concerning defund the police" and related subjects and persons;
- Pool attendance records for (identifiable individual).
And before we leave you with the impression dogs are the only animals to bite or bug humans in recent years, let it be known that there are documented reports of cats, skunks and even horses also biting Hamiltonians.
But dogs still topped the list.
Katrina Clarke is a reporter at The Spectator. katrinaclarke@thespec.com