I’m not a great lover of dogs and wish that all dogs, when out and about, be on leashes. But I would never poison a dog, as has recently happened here in Toronto. Seems someone put anti-freeze into a doggie drinking trough in High Park. One dog, it seems, will not make it and the other dogs are very ill but stable.
There has been an ongoing issue between dog lovers and those who wish the dogs be on leashes. Most recently in the park across the street from my apartment a “dog park” was constructed so that all the nippy four-legged demons could have a place to scamper about and be dogs without impinging on other people’s ability to enjoy the rest of the park. It’s a fairly large dog park and the expectation is that the dogs play there. The park is relatively small so letting one’s dog off the leash means that any one of us could be pounced upon quite easily. The park, Allan Gardens, is not a leash-free zone, never has been. And yet the dog owners in my neighbourhood seem to view it as their right to let Rover, Tiger, Killer, Boxer etc loose.
Though it is horrific that someone would stoop to poisoning dogs (it’s not their fault they are off their leashes, it’s their owners’ fault) I can understand the sentiment behind it. Frustration that the rights of dogs and dog owners seem to be superceding that of others who just want to sit on a bench peacefully or have a picnic without a great big creature crashing into the food or biting a pedestrian.
What I would love to see is stiffer penalties laid against dog owners who let their dogs off the leash in areas where there are signs everywhere saying to keep the dogs on a leash. Make it $500 and hopefully the human caretakers of these beasts will pay closer attention to signs.
Dogs poisoned | Animal Breeding Resource Page said,
June 23, 2008 at 6:13 pm
[...] thespiritdog wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI’m not a great lover of dogs and wish that all dogs, when out and about, be on leashes. But I would never poison a dog, as has recently happened here in Toronto. Seems someone put anti-freeze into a doggie drinking trough in High Park. … [...]
exemple blog » Blog Archive » Dogs poisoned said,
June 23, 2008 at 6:46 pm
[...] thespiritdog wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI’m not a great lover of dogs and wish that all dogs, when out and about, be on leashes. But I would never poison a dog, as has recently happened here in Toronto. Seems someone put anti-freeze into a doggie drinking trough in High Park. … [...]
lydia said,
June 23, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I would never ever hurt a dog, nor a cat for that matter. I think that having untrained dogs run free in a small park where there is high traffic around it is a call for disaster.
If the poisoner was afoot in the dog park in highpark, he was hurting dogs that were running leash free in a leash free area. That guy/or woman is just sick, period.
I think that the fee for letting your dog run without a leash is about 280 dollars if you get caught…and if your dog bites someone, the dog can be put down.
lydia said,
June 23, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I checked and it happend on Dog hill which is a fenced off part of high park reserved for dogs:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080623.wdogpoison0623/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080623.wdogpoison0623
lydia said,
June 23, 2008 at 8:49 pm
happened- sorry multitasking
opinionatedbean said,
June 23, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I don’t condone the poisoning of animals – the dogs are innocent, they just want to frolic and get excited over their tennis balls, chew toys etc. Off-leash areas are great, as the dogs can scamper about and those of us who are scared of dogs can avoid those areas.
Unfortunately in my park the entire park is a leash zone, except for the dog park that Parks&Rec constructed. So my expectation is that since the dogs have a zone to play in, they should be on leashes when outside of their “dog park”…but the doggie owners in my area just take off the leash once they are in the park, with no regard to small kids, the elderly and chickens like myself who are trying to walk a cat.
shihtzustaff said,
June 24, 2008 at 5:49 am
There is never an excuse for poisoning the dogs…poisoning the irresponsible owners…now that is a thought. This is just another example how the human race puts dogs in danger. It is the same thing with people teaching their pitbulls to be aggressive…ban the deed, not the breed. Same thing here…it is the people who should pay. If off leash areas exist that is where they should take their dogs.
David Cantrell said,
June 25, 2008 at 12:00 pm
If you get pounced upon by a creature, then do what I did last time it happened. I killed the animal. I don’t care whether it was “just being friendly” or whether the owner was at fault, it looked and felt like an attack.
opinionatedbean said,
June 25, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I just yell at the dog owners. I get the usual trite response of “but he’s so friendly, he would never bite”. There is a by-law in place that if someone “feels” threatened they can demand that the dog be put back on a leash and the owner must comply.
I did freak one dog owner out about a year ago when I reamed her out for letting her dog off the leash in an area littered with signs saying that dogs should be on leashes. Heck, I keep my cat on a leash when outside and he’s a complete chicken and sticks to my side.
vegiVamp said,
June 25, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Increasing the fine won’t work, what you need to increase is the chance of getting busted.
puckrobin said,
June 30, 2008 at 5:13 am
I think it’s criminal (I mean, morally as well as technically) to poison dogs.
But like you, I wish some dog owners would smarten up. Living near the park, I have come to realize that Torontonians fail to comprehend the on-the-leash, off-the-leash areas of High Park just as TTC riders have failed to comprehend the garbage/recycle bins. The signs might be confusing but you’d think they’d grasp that the North side of Bloor St. is most certainly not an “off-the-leash” area.
Once I saw a dog off the leash at Bloor and Spadina. I think such dog owners are negligent. It’s not considerate for other people on the street, and I don’t think letting your dog roam free on Bloor St. is safe for the dog either.
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