Mar 11, 2009 - 04:30 AM

By Parvaneh Pessian

WHITBY -- Susan Steiner takes great pride in her ability to feed 25 dogs in 18 minutes.

The Myrtle woman and former kennel owner established that record while nurturing her longtime passion for looking after the animals.

"At the kennel, we would sometimes see up to 60 dogs at once and it was fun for me because it kept me busy," she says of Camp LotsaDogs in Clarington, which shut its doors last March after three years of service.

Since then, Ms. Steiner has welcomed stray dogs onto her 25-acre property, while attempting to find suitable permanent homes for them -- a successful pastime that has resulted in more than 120 adoptions over the past year, she said.

But a recent complaint about "too many dogs" brought Town of Whitby bylaw officials and animal services to her doorstep.

"We have to do some more investigation into what the actual bylaw permits them to do and compare that with what they're doing there," said Darlene Barker, supervisor of bylaw services, after an inspection was done at the home.

"We haven't made the determination yet whether she is in compliance or not."

Animal services enforces the town's animal control bylaw, which states the number of animals residents are permitted to keep on their property. Typically residents are only allowed two animals unless the scenario involves a rescue operation, which is a group or organization that takes in animals in need of adoption.

Ms. Steiner said it would be a shame to stop her efforts as she continues to see a great degree of success in matching up the animals with worthy owners.

"The dogs come and they go," Ms. Steiner said, adding that typically there aren't more than 10 dogs there at a time.

"I knock myself out to make sure they got homes fast and they're not sitting here for six to eight months."

Many of the adoption requests pour in through rescue sites like Adopt-a-Pet.com and Petfinder.com, as well as her former clients at the kennel who also pitch in every now and then with donations of supplies or funds for vet fees.

The set-up of the home is ideal, allowing the dogs plenty of room to enjoy the outdoors and just enough distance from neighbours to avoid any problems, Ms. Steiner said.

"There's no noise here, the dogs are on a schedule, it's totally controlled and where should dogs be except for on agricultural land?

"It's secure where they sleep in the family room here. They have a walk-out to about a quarter or half an acre fenced in and they're in and out playing and downstairs, they're in crates and they're quite happy."

Ms. Steiner said she draws upon her history of working so closely with animals at the kennel to ensure all the dogs are properly crate trained and get along well despite the varying breeds and ages ranging from eight months to seven years.

The issue comes down to zoning and whether Ms. Steiner's use at her agricultural property is in compliance with bylaws, supervisor of animal services Sylvie Koch said.

"As far as I'm concerned she has more than two dogs so she's in contravention of the bylaw, but there are other things at play here.

"If she has a legitimate rescue or fostering program, then from there the Town would decide what that means."

Descriptions of dogs available for adoption from Ms. Steiner's home can be found at http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/ON258.html.