Kite fighting – a sport where competitors use super-sharp kite line to try to cut each other’s kites out of the sky – is now banned in Oakville.
A new bylaw, which bans the activity on both private and public property anywhere in the town, was approved by councillors at their August 15 meeting.
And while town staff say it may be challenging to enforce the prohibition, Mayor Rob Burton says the bylaw will encourage people to report the activity – to “see something and say something.”
Vanessa Warren, owner of The Ranch, a horse-riding property on Burnhamthorpe Road between Hwy. 407 and the Sixteen Mile Creek is getting good at saying something.
As cut kites trailing hundreds of metres of sharp line have been landing on her property over the last three years, she has been warning of the danger of the hobby.
The kite line – sometimes made of metal, piano wire, fishing line or glass-coated string – snarls in trees, stretches across trails and becomes entangled in farm equipment.
“We have had minor injuries to horses and riders, and frankly, far too many serious near misses,” Warren told councillors. “It is excessively hard to see until you are literally wrapped up in it.”
“And just to be clear, the loose kites and their very lethal cutting string have to pass over a conservation area, Hwy 407 and Burnhamthorpe Road, to land on my property.”
She is particularly concerned that kites floating across the highway will clothesline a passing motorcyclist.
“There is no safe way to do this sport,” she said.
In June, after hearing complaints from Warren and several other residents, including one injured by the dangerous kite line, councillors told town staff to investigate a ban on kite fighting.
Read more: Town council looks to control potentially lethal activity
Jim Barry, the town’s director of municipal enforcement, recommended a ban on kite-fighting in Oakville parks, similar to bylaws in Toronto and Mississauga.
But Warren argued that such a bylaw would be ineffective and disputed Barry’s claim that it would be difficult for the town to catch rule-breakers.
She said kite fighting frequently occurs on lands north of Oakville’s hospital and around Glenorchy Conservation Area, with groups as big as 50 to 100 people gathering to battle.
Her comments led Burton to endorse the idea of a complete ban on kite-fighting.
“We have large crowds; they have a favourite spot, we know where it is. All that is missing is the ability for us to act when someone like Ms. Warren sees something and says something.”
The new bylaw bans flying kites with string made of “hazardous material,” including abrasive lines made of metal, wire, piano wire, fishing line, or any type of nylon that is or could be chemically treated or coated with glass particles.
Bylaw enforcement officers will begin with an education campaign to inform people of the ban. Tickets for repeat offenders will start at $300, with escalating penalties for subsequent offences.