06/11/2023
Not my words but spot on!!!
Here’s the [very long] letter I sent to these media contacts, recently shared by Jenn Evans Garandza. I parsed together items from the Fact Sheet recently shared by the Eulala Mills and my own letter to council. Let's just keep sending out messages till something hits!
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I waited till the rain had eased today before taking my dog to our local park for a walk and a bit of fun with her ball. I go there every day. The park was empty when I got there, then slowly filled up with a fellow dog walkers, a woman taking a brisk walk around the trail that circles the park, and a few families who showed up to play basketball. By the time I left and the sun came out, the park was settling into a typical Saturday of families, dog walkers, and people out for the hoops.
Saanich Council appears to hate these typical days. Their new “People, Pets and Parks” strategy will mean that everyone wanting to play with their dog off leash in Saanich will have to go to one of only 57 parks out of the 171 parks in Saanich. And even that number isn’t as ‘good’ as it may appear: only 11 parks and one beach will be fully off leash. There’ll be 12 more with small fenced areas inside larger parks, and 46 of those 57 parks will have leash restrictions of some kind.
Saanich is ‘offering’ these 57 parks to the estimated 10-20, 000 families with dogs, despite the fact that all of them are already off leash. Despite the fact that Saanich’s own data shows that the vast majority (73%) of daily park users are dog owners like me.[i] Despite the fact that two thirds of Saanich residents have no concerns about off-leash dogs in parks and beaches.[ii]
Making changes to dogs in parks is not comparable to adding bike lanes or changing traffic speed limits. It is, I suppose, much more akin to changing zoning laws to increase housing density in the kind of challenge it presents to people's sense of their worlds. Dogs are a special case.
Did you know that dogs have been buried with humans as well as in their own specially made graves for nearly 15,000 years? An internationally renown anthropology researcher at the University of Alberta, Dr. Robert Losey, discovered the first known burial of a dog with humans in Germany: a young and sick dog buried alongside two humans. In Siberia over 7000 years ago, dogs were buried with food offerings and wearing necklaces, the same burial rites accorded to humans at that time. Losey posits that living with dogs has helped the success of humans as a species. They've pulled sleds for us, hunted alongside us, guarded our homes, and always offered companionship and affection. In the nineteenth-century, early animal welfare advocates created dogs' 'homes,' pushed for licensing to support educated dog ownership, and sought to ensure that dogs were not used as living specimens in the emerging medical sciences.
This simplified history is why there is an outcry when Council seeks to move to make changes to how we can care for our animals. We owe animals who give us so much all we can to ensure they live healthy and fulfilling lives.
I have participated in Saanich’s consultation around this strategy at every stage, providing survey responses and reading the papers proposed at each stage. My read of the many well-prepared reports Saanich Council have shared is that the majority of people walk their dogs in parks and are happy with the current bylaws. The proposed changes to use seem to respond very enthusiastically to the views of a minority of park users who would prefer all off leash areas to be removed and park access by dogs and their owners to be severely curtailed.
My park is going to be ruined as a place of community where I see my neighbours and chat about our day. It’s been one of the daily pleasures of my life. I’ve gotten to know neighbours’ kids and their dogs, watch kids learn to ride a bike or climb a tree, people practicing yoga or reading a book. And all while my dog and I have a good lark throwing a ball. Instead, people like me with dogs will be compressed into ever smaller, ever more crowded spaces. I do not envy anyone whose ‘local’ park will now become a ‘destination’ dog park that is not fit for purpose.
And of course, it’s all going to cost taxpayers $4-7 million over the next 5 years. I just got my tax notice from Saanich, and dutifully paid my taxes increased by 7.1 % increase this year. I can’t help but remember that Mayor Murdock and his electioneering team assured me, on my doorstep, that he thought the current by laws were entirely sufficient. He assured my neighbours of that too. None of the candidates running for election in Saanich Council a few short months ago declared their intention to such drastic change in how so many Saanich residents use the parks we happily pay for with our taxes. I won’t be voting for any of them next time round.
Saanich Council’s “People, Pets and Park” project is an extreme and unnecessary proposal. It must be rejected by Council.
Sincerely,
Susan Hamilton
[i] PPP Appendix F Statistically Phone Survey Results page 6 24% of 300 respondents =72, 52% of 101 dog owners =52.5, 52.5/72=73
[ii] PPP Appendix F Statistically Phone Survey Results page 13
