Dog owners get a lot of grief from people, sometimes fairly (not picking up poop) and sometimes unfairly (their dog barking while out for a walk).
So I take it with a grain of salt a flurry of recent complaints I’ve received from Burnaby trail users about dog owners and dog walkers making their lives miserable with “thuggish” behaviour.
“Yes, I said thuggish,” wrote Phyllis. “They either don’t have their dogs on leashes while walking on the Deer Lake or Burnaby Lake trails, or they have those extended leashes that are let out so long that they can’t control their beasts. I just want to go walking without having snarling dogs freaking me out. They need to take these dogs to an off-leash park – not our precious trails … Dog walkers are also bad because some of them have too many animals out at the same time and they can’t control them.”
I also received a missive from Jeff Wittworth, who is fed up after a trip to Piper Spit at Burnaby Lake, which is run by Metro Vancouver and not the City of Burnaby.
“Despite the fact that there are signs saying no dogs, I was saddened to see many who ignored the signs and chased the birds and ducks. Even after advising them not to, the response was, ‘So what, it's not like anyone will stop me.’ Then, to my horror, at the western painted turtle nesting site, near the dam, a guy with a German shepherd, with a leash, walked by and then his dog proceeded to attack the geese into the water, disturbing the delicate habitat. As there was nobody to stop this, I went after the dog to make sure it did not kill or injure any geese, or turtles. The owner laughed. In both of these incidences, the owners stated that if their dogs were injured by the wildlife, as they attacked, they would have no problem killing the wildlife.
“I would like to know why our parks are not protected, or at least monitored via camera, to stop these flagrant abuses of our parks and wildlife? I have never seen any bylaw officers or RCMP or Burnaby SCPA at our parks. It's my understanding that the programs to police the parks have been cut back. It's no wonder the homeless and criminals use our parks for their purposes. I was recently in Richmond and Surrey, and they had a presence there.”
That is a fair question. But I guess we expect adults to act like adults and follow the rules. Of course, we learned the hard way during the pandemic that this is perhaps expecting too much.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
