For the past 20 plus years in rain, snow, sun, wind, winter spring summer and fall I’ve walked my dogs off leash at Marshall fields along the creek bed and in the backfield of the old lakers golf course.
Yes, I’ve been through a few dogs in over 20 years but two times per day I’ve made that walk. There are in fact several people who have made this walk and routine and continue to do so. We have seen dogs come and go over the years. Not once have the people or dogs complained about the building of the soccer fields, the construction of the parking lots, the baseball diamonds, the tennis courts and now the pickleball courts.
We keep our dogs off the fields and pick up after them. In fact, we’ve cut the grass in the back trail, removed barb wire so no kids got caught in it when looking for a ball and taken garbage bags in spring in order to make certain it’s clean. The Geese and people leave more of a disgusting mess than any dog. Dogs need time to run off leash and I’ve never seen nor witnessed an incident at Marshall field — maybe because the dogs have space and the owners are responsible.
We don’t need leash laws at Marshall field area for dogs. Maybe the dog owners could leash the people to take them from the car to the sports facility they are using. We could provide big bags for them to put their garbage in. They could show up in the rain and snow and clean up their field of play every day. They could also drive their cars slowly in the parking lots and not park them on the grass to keep them out of the sun. We could call bylaw every day when these violations occur but we don’t because we are there to take our dogs for a walk and a social visit with other dogs.
Use bylaw to monitor an clean up the extra new spaces along Lakeshore drive. People are living in their vehicles all along Lakeshore drive, spending the day at the beach — where are they going to the bathroom? There are no washrooms. I haven’t seen them putting bags of feces in a garbage can.
The dogs’ off leash is a 20-minute event with the supervision of their owners. Think about it….. There are way bigger issues to tackle than dogs and people getting daily exercise.
Kathy OFerrall