I drove by this sign today. I could not believe it. It's in front of the Manulife building, which also houses the offices of the Chronicle Herald staff at the bottom of Joseph Howe Drive here in Halifax. I don't know why I haven't noticed the sign before, but I haven't -
I was told that if I would have attempted to take these pictures during the week I would have gotten into big trouble, but I guess since today was Saturday I was able to get away with it luckily.I posted the photo to Facebook, and my friends there are as dog crazy as me - so they posted replies like -
"Coincidentally we've just come back from Stewiacke River Park with our dogs. Along the whole trail: beer bottles, plastic cups, cigarette butts, and Will found some human shit to roll in in the bushes. No kidding. And that with garbage cans and outhouses throughout the park. Can we put up a NO HUMANS sign where people and their dogs walk?"
"If this is not the saddest and most pathetic thing I have ever seen, I do not know what is. SO wrong."
"This is wrong on so many levels, but one of them being teaching children to be afraid of dogs!"
I guess that Manulife has a daycare on site - and to me banning dogs from the property is saying the management way overcompensates - or has absolutely no control over the children in the daycare -
Just like the sing over the "no dogs" sign - "children playing - drive slowly" - does that mean that they let the children run amok all over the property? Is it a matter of liability that they don't let dogs on the property? The children may bite the dogs? I've always been a bit leery of children my own self.I find it weird that they would ban something that probably more than 50% of the children actually have at their houses when they go home at night. It's really quite ridiculous when you think about it.
Maybe it has something to do with the Manulife company as a whole. Maybe Manulife hates dogs. Maybe the insurance company Manulife discriminates against dogs? Maybe as political dog owners we shouldn't give any of our money to Manulife? It's defintely something to think about if you are currently giving any of your money to Manulife.
It's gotten me thinking though - maybe I shouldn't let children on my own property when my dogs are playing - so I thought I'd make up my own sign - and if you'd like to print out your own version of this sign, I did it up in an adobe acrobat version as well.Who wants to have children running around willy-nilly - they might fall down and snot might come out of their nose and get on your lawn. Yuck. Or poop might ooze out of their diaper. Gross. Children really are best to be avoided at all costs.
I think it's high time that children were better regulated and kept in their own homes where they can't soil public spaces and harass strangers and scare people. It's just better that way. It's the way of the future.
At least uncontrolled children.
ReplyDeleteAnd the same rules should apply for trashy juveniles and adults who litter the environment wherever they go.
I have to agree with the sign....I have five dogs of my own along with three children. It always surprises and disgusts me the number of people that take their dogs to children's playgrounds, soccer fields, baseball fields, beaches, to "do their business".
ReplyDeleteSince that location is a daycare it means children are sitting on the ground playing games, and possibly picnicing! The sign is asking people with dogs not to be there when the children are there, which is logical, besides the possibility of dogs using the bathroom, the safety of the children I'm sure is their biggest concern...there aren't many children that can resist a seemingly cute dog :)
We attend a summer recreation program everyday a at park built specifically for children in our city, 100s attend eveyday. It seems everyone in the neighbourhood that has a dog takes their dog there to go potty, despite most of them having fenced back yards! The children of this city sit on that same grass everyday to eat the lunch provided.
There is seldom a day I take the kids to their program that I don't have to walk around dog shit or warn the kids to watch their step.
There are lots of responsible dog owners out there that pick up after their pet(when I scoop I even pull the grass so no one is stepping in any residual), unfortunately I think there's just as many that don't...and let's face it you can't pick up pee!!
Bluestarr - you mention that there's dog waste at the places you go to - what about all the garbage that humans put at the places that you go to as well? Simply because you can assign a demographic to the waste - ie dog shit - does not mean you should be able to ban that demographic. It's like trying to ban people who drink Tim Hortons coffee from every place that you see Tim Horton's cup - it IS exactly the same thing - and it's equally ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is the first time you've been to my blog - but I've written about this topic before - the politics of dog shit - but just because there is dog shit, doesn't mean that you can ban all dog owners from a public space.
And as for dog pee - when you go to a public park - what about all the squirrel pee? I'm not being silly, I'm being serious. What is the difference between squirrel pee and dog pee?
I'm trying to gain greater access for dogs - not have it taken away, by showing people that the way they think perhaps has repurcussions, and there is perhaps other ways to think about these subjects.
Thanks for reading and I hope you'll think about this when you're walking through your kids playgrounds and day cares - look around - at the dog shit AND the shit put there by the humans.
Unfortunately humans are very responsible for way too much waste, everywhere. My wish is that governments, law enforcement would crack down on both litterers and dog owners that don't pick up after their dogs, unfortunately that kind of man power isn't available...
ReplyDeleteWhen I clean up after my dogs I often even clean up after other people's if there's already waste there...I figure if I don't someone will likely think it was my dogs mess anyway. Likewise, I've taught my children to leave the spaces we use cleaner than we found them, if that means cleaning up some else's garbage, so be it. The garbage from the lunches our city provide children is often left for others to clean up, and I insist that my children help. We camped in a fairly empty campground last week but by the weekend it was full...suddenly the area I was pottying my dogs was covered in feces so I spent the weekend cleaning up after my FIVE dogs but probabaly five or six other dogs as well...You know as well as I do the diseases that our dogs can catch just by sniffing other dogs waste, I'm not confident that an owner that doesn't even clean up after their dog bothers to take them regularly to the vet!
You are right about there being other animals leaving their waste around, but luckily I've never had to scrape squirrel waste from between my kid's toes after playing at a playground! Although I've certainly had to bathe my dogs after finding any sort of animal waste to roll in!! The thimble of squirrel pee dries remarkable quicker than even most small dogs pee...
All arguments you have for more access for dogs are great, and agree there should be lots more places for us to go with them...If more people would clean up after their dogs or have their dogs potty in their own yard before heading out to see the world it sure would lessen the arguments to keep dogs out of public places! I love taking my dogs everywhere we go and have great pride in the dogs being well adjusted because of it....
All those arguments and dogs' rights aside doesn't change the fact that there shouldn't be dogs on a daycare or school property when kids are there. The sign you mention is asking for owners to use the space after daycare hours which I think is quite responsible of the daycare and reasonable for dog owners. It is not banning dogs just restricting when the space can be used, most parks have times when the parks can be used for humans as well....ie 8 am to dusk
BTW I've followed your blog for a couple years although I only check in periodically. I agree with many of your views and respect your work to promote animals. If more people took responsibilty for their animals you wouldn't have nearly as tough a battle to wage to gain access...unfortunately I think more irresponsible people keep getting more and more dogs leaving responsible dog owners holding the "poop bag"!
I totally agree that there should be dog free zones, kids only zones, multi-use parks, there is space for everyone and no one should feel like when they go out that they aren't welcome in a space - we have a huge park here in Halifax - Point Pleasant Park, and it's been our largest off leash park for many years - and it has a section of it that has a "no dog after 10am" section - and it's probably the nicest section of the park - and I'm very happy as a dog owner to have a part of the park that's like that - because when I'm in the off leash zone with my dogs, if I come across a person who is unhappy with my off leash dogs I can direct them to the no dogs area of the park and tell them that there is a large part of the park that they can enjoy where they will not encounter a dog at all. I respect all demographics - but I find that a lot of demographics feel like it's okay to not have to respect mine for some reason - like as if it's a privilege to be able to go out into public. So instead of give and take, it's always push and pull.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we'll never be able to draft any law that says that assholes won't be able to own dogs - just like assholes can't have children - so we'll always have to deal with dog waste and irresponsible owners - but hopefully if we can just lead by example, we'll be able to build up a little bit more dog tolerance - within the dog community, and to the public at large - so we can have the lifestyle we all want to have.
If your breed of dog has a past of attacking people then no keep them away from our children.
ReplyDeleteIdiot in the comment above, you have no idea.
ReplyDelete