Time is running out before Ottawa’s most famous plastic cow is put out to pasture.

The rooftop Holstein atop Orléans food boutique Cheddar Et Cetera has less than a year to stand -- that is, if the city follows through on a council direction from three years ago.

But before bylaw officers raid the roof of the Watters Rd. plaza next summer, there could be a new campaign to make sure the cow remains.

“People are still asking about it,” store manager Jacques Leury said Tuesday. “They want to make sure it stays.”

The cow conundrum started in early 2010 when the city said the statue contravened a rooftop sign bylaw. Council ordered a review of the policy and a year later agreed to keep the status quo.

A deal was brokered at City Hall in mid-2011: Council would let the cow stay until after the next group of politicians take office after the 2014 municipal election. A drop-dead date of July 13, 2015, was entered into the minutes.

The cow generated discussion about what’s considered a “sign” and some feared that if the bovine was allowed to stay, there would be a proliferation of rooftop signs and statues in Ottawa.

The ordeal even convinced a fringe candidate to drop out of the 2010 mayoral election because he was frustrated the city wasn’t booting the cow to protect “the rule of law.”

The next council takes office Dec. 1.

The new planning committee, which will be established in December, and council will decide if the cow restriction is bull, or if it’s necessary to maintain the integrity of city bylaws.

Newly re-elected Orléans Coun. Bob Monette said he’ll fight to save the cow.

“I support leaving it there. There hasn’t been any issues,” Monette said. “It shows the public supports it. Just leave it the way it is.”

Leury originally collected an amazing 9,000 signatures just to save the cow, and it paid off.

He said a new petition will begin if there’s wind that the city will enforce the reprieve deadline.

“We’re going to do the same thing,” Leury said.

Leury said the cow is more than an advertisement for the store.

“That’s an icon in eastern Ontario,” he said. “Not too long ago this was all farmland. The cow is part of our heritage.”

jon.willing@sunmedia.ca

Twitter:@JonathanWilling