I don't want to sully our enjoyment of the meagre spring weather we're experiencing by bringing back memories of our cold and windy winter living on the shores of Lake Ontario but after reading the article in the most recent Beach Metro our local community paper, I have no choice.
The article headline says it all-'Dog Association Wants Right to Use Beaches in Winter' (http://www.beachmetro.com/)
My concern with the article is our councillor's response to our request. She has asked the mayor's office to authorize a pilot project for next year allowing dogs ON LEASH ONLY to use the area beaches in the winter months, as a way to 'study the impact on our Blue Flag Beaches' citing ' it's a matter of bacteria and cleanliness.'
Well, so what's my issue with that??? We get what every dog owner in the beach has been asking for---dogs being allowed on the beach during the winter months! Right?
So let me get this right....dogs ON LEASH on the beach in the winter months as opposed to dogs running free on the beach will impact the environment differently. There will be a difference in the bacteria count if the dog's are off-leash?
Hmm...this could only be possible if owners are strolling along the boardwalk, sipping their lattes deep in conversation with a companion, mindless of their four-footed charges.(unfortunately, I see this all the time, summer and winter.) These same owners don't even care to know where and when their dog has left its mess until they hear someone call out to them, 'excuse me, your dog has just dumped' or 'excuse me, do you need a bag" ?(pointing in the direction of the crouching perpetrator) Many a jogger is guilty of this offense! Not to mention the mounted police, who exercise their horses on the beach, summer and winter months. I have never in 20+ years seen an officer get off his horse and clean up after it. Nope, it's the dog owners who pick up after them. (unless the dogs get to it first!)
So, for me it goes right back to the basics....responsible dog owners, who are mindful as to the whereabouts of their dog at all times, when off-leash.
I guess whether off-leash or on-leash, if the owners arn't responsible there will be issues with bacteria and cleanliness summer and winter. If not on the beach proper, it will be be in our parkettes along the boardwalk and in the parks. It's not a matter of allowing dogs off-leash or not that will make our beach area cleaner. It's a matter of responsible ownership and taking responsibility for our environmental and ecological footprint.
When by-law officers focus on ticketing the true offenders; the persons who are guilty of riddling the beach with bacteria and dirt, those who leave garbage, be it in the form of dog feces, horse dung or dirty diapers, they will be doing their job. Then perhaps this vilification of all dog owners will cease!
2 comments:
Hi Deborah,
Thanks for visiting my website and signing my guestbook! What are the names of your Danes?
My human so agrees with you about the unfairness of dog laws and how some irresponsible dog owners make it bad for the rest of us and give us all a bad reputation! In New Zealand, dog owners are treated very much like second-class citizens too!
I recently went on holiday with my humans for the first time - come over to my blog to read all about it:
www.bighoneydog.com/honeys-blog/ (you have to scroll down a couple of posts) - but you will see in Part 2 that dogs were banned completely from the whole town centre we visited! There are a couple of other cities in NZ which ban dogs from the centre...I'm really lucky that Auckland doesn't do this! But it is also because of some irresponsible owners who don't pick up after their dogs...and now we're all banned!
Dogs are not allowed on many beaches here in summer (not even on lead!) and in winter, only before 10am and after 4pm can we go off-leash...it's one thing to look forward to in winter! But we're lucky that there are some beautiful beaches on Auckland's west coast which allow dogs all year round - you just have to drive out a bit to find them!
Do come back and check out my blog sometime! (the Guestbook was on my Homepage - my blog is on a different page)
Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane
www.bighoneydog.com/honeys-blog/
Thanks for stopping in to visit Honey and thank you for the info on the off-leash laws in NZ.
Off-leash exercise is one of the main building blocks to good health, not to mention the all-important socialization that goes with it!
Anyone who's ever seen a dog running free, with a glint in their eye and a smiling curve to their lips know dogs achieve a balance with nature when they are off-leash, free running, with the wind in their ears...heights they just can't attain while strolling along beside their people. (but I guess you can't expect all humans to be aware of this.)
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