We like to keep our page positive, but a recent experience really rattled us and after consideration, we decided to share.
⚠️Warning: racist and abusive language in the video.⚠️
One of our team members was walking a small leashed dog on a path next to Taylor Park School in South Burnaby. This was next to a playground and clearly marked as an on-leash area.
A woman pulled up to the entrance of the park, blocking it, and opened her car door to release three large off-leash dogs. They appeared to be border collie, Rottweiler, and German Shepherd types.
The dogs rushed aggressively at our small poodle. Our walker told the woman to call her dogs. The woman shouted profanity and insults, including comments about the walker’s personal appearance.
Two strangers intervened, allowing the walker to leave and circle back to the parking lot, where she took this video. In it, the dog owner is yelling at the people who helped us and uses racist language.
It’s not the first time we’ve encountered thoughtless off-leashers or entitled comments, but this particular encounter was extra disturbing. The dogs showed aggressive behaviour, almost made contact, and were in a child’s playground in the middle of the afternoon. The woman immediately became abusive and hostile to everyone around her.
Although we’ve made an animal control complaint (including her license plate info) and followed up, we have no indication that action has been taken.
If you live in the area, please use caution around this individual and if you have witnessed similar behaviour, please report it.
We all want to give our dogs more freedom, but it's disrespectful and dangerous to have dogs running at large in public and residential areas.
Earlier this summer, a dog died in a public park after being attacked by a large, illegally off-leash dog. Even if the dog isn’t normally aggressive, if in a state of high arousal and excitement, altercations can happen and a single bite/pin can be fata