Neighbours bring up worries about proposed dog park

What excuses will people come up with next? The two local dog parks in London have been a hudge success and nobody is complaining. Prior, residence were taking pictures of doggie doo and trying to say it would be worse if it was a dog park. The thing is, right now it isn't and people don't have rules to abide to without getting caught. Poop and Scoop is a bylaw through out London, so obviously people aren't respecting the bylaw, but with other dog owners around, they would pretty soon learn.

I've been to one of our parks and prior to even getting into the park they are double gated as you enter. They have extra bags and plenty of garbage cans.

Many people come time and time again as regulars, so not only are their dogs having fun, but it's a good place to socialize and as for barking, in that large of a space, it's something I've rarely heard. It's more dogs having the pleasure of running. A place where they can excercise and socialize, unless they are Pit bulls of course. They have to be muzzled and leashed at all times and only watch all the fun, but that's the Ontario Government, not the London Dog Owners Association making that rule.

This man should visit the other parks and I think he would change his view. Would he rather see them running free and perhaps even in the school property? That's the purpose of the Leash Free Parks. Give your dogs the socialization and excersise and you have happy, well behaved dogs. Not everyone is fortunate to have back yards or other dogs to play with. This has gone so well, that a third park is required. That in itself tells you something.

Funny that he is so upset about the menthane gas, yet he still lives there with his kids. I didn't realize that only dog owners were smokers.

Neighbour brings up worries about proposed dog park
By IAN GILLESPIE
London Free Press

Dave Swan says, "I'm really worried about my kids. If that's a crime, so be it."

You can't argue with that. But I'm not so sure about the rest of what he says.

Swan is opposed to an off-leash dog park the city wants to build near his house. The proposed new park would be fenced, with a 50-space parking lot and a double-gate entrance off Colonel Talbot Road. It would sit on an
old garbage dump near Byron Somerset elementary school, which is unfenced.

Swan doesn't like this. Not one bit.

"Frankly, I could not control myself if one of my children got attacked by somebody else's dog," he warns.

He says leash-free parks attract overly aggressive dogs and that one of these canine bullies might maul a child.
Swan says the proposed 1.2-metre fence isn't high enough to restrain aggressive dogs, particularly when the ground is raised by snow. He says many dog owners using off-leash parks don't leash their pets while moving from the parking lot to the park.

Also, Swan says he's worried about the noise ("What is the decibel level going to be with 50 barking dogs?" he asks.) He says he's worried about all that puppy poop, too. ("That feces is going to wash down the hill into the schoolyard," he says.)

Because the site is a former garbage dump, Swan says he's worried about the methane gas that's leaking out. ("If somebody's cigarette butt ignites methane gas coming out of those vents and it blows up my house," he says, "I've got an issue with that.")

Swan also says he's worried the park will attract pedophiles, who often lure children by asking for help to find their lost dog.

"We don't need any more reasons for strangers to be in our neighbourhood," he says, adding he'd rather see a soccer pitch on the site.

He says he's also upset the city notified only residents who live within 110 metres of the proposed park. To rectify that, he's delivered about 700 letters to local residents.

"We're not dog haters," he says, adding he owns a dog. "We just can't have it (a dog park) beside a school that doesn't have a fence around it."

Swan wants answers.

So I ask two local dog trainers, John Wade and Yvette Van Veen, whether off-leash parks attract overly aggressive dogs. They both say no, adding a dog that's leashed or restrained from socializing with other dogs is usually far more aggressive than one that's allowed to run and roam.

"My belief is that we'll get far fewer aggressive dogs if we have more dog parks," says Wade.
I ask Jay Stanford, the city's manager of environmental services, about the methane gas. He says the methane dissipates far too quickly to be dangerous.

I ask whether the site could be used as a soccer pitch. Stanford says the city concluded that was not feasible because the buried garbage is still settling, which causes the ground to heave and split. He says it would cost between $150,000 and $250,000 to cap the site with clay for a soccer field, but only about $40,000 for a dog park.

I ask Beth Sayler, the off-leash parks chairperson of the London Dog Owners Association, whether there's a problem with people unleashing their dog before they enter such parks (there are two in London) and not cleaning up. Sayler says it rarely happens, and the association regularly posts volunteers at the parks to educate users about park protocol.

I talk to half a dozen dog owners at the Stoney Creek off-leash park on Adelaide Street, just north of Windermere Road. They say they never see dogs fight or jump over the fence; they say their pets are far more interested in what's in the park (namely other dogs) than out.

As for noise, Sayler says when dogs are playing, they're much quieter than when they're tied up in a yard.

As for pedophiles, she says a Saskatchewan study found crime actually decreased in neighbourhoods with dog parks because there's more activity.

There'll be a public information meeting about the proposed park at Byron Somerset school on May 16 at 6:30 p.m.

It should be quite a dogfight.