To the Editor,
Re: Dog owners should pay annual fees, Letters, April 5.
Dog owners want more rights but refuse to act responsibly in regards to their dogs to earn them.
All this ode to dogs is pap and has zero to do with the issue at hand – untrained, out-of-control dogs forcing people to interact with them. That is the only issue.
Animal control offered all those getting tickets for their dogs being off-leash a chance to forgo any payment and instead have the $150 go toward a six-week intensive obedience training course.
How many took them up on it? A few, almost all just paid the fine. This speaks volumes about how irresponsible and lazy dog owners are as a whole, not just a few bad apples, but the clear majority of them.
This attitude is why the crackdown has come about due to the general public being fed up with dog owners who have zero credibility as they continue to spout comments that their dogs are as good as gold when the opposite is clearly the case.
That dog owners as a norm intentionally hang blue bags with their contents in the bushes and small trees right by the trails at eye level speaks volumes as to their character or lack thereof.
All our lives we are taught, don’t go up to pet a strange dog as you, the dog owner and even the dog never know how it will react.
That cuts both ways as to the dog approaching you, as again, nobody knows how the dog will react.
This puts the person in danger of being attacked and bitten as well as having to go through this over and over again.
I don’t need, over my walk, several dozens dogs in all jumping up on me, sniffing my crotch, approaching me and forcing me to interact with them. If I wish to do so, that should be my prerogative, not the dogs.
Tom McCartney
Nanaimo