June 12, 2008

I don’t presently own a dog but have in the past. 

It used to be that we left our animals at home when we went somewhere and they also didn’t live inside our houses either. 

When they needed to pee or poop they usually did it on our own property.

Last Saturday my wife and I went to a nursery and I stayed in the car while she went inside. 

Next to me was a van with a medium sized white dog sitting quietly inside.  A middle aged man and woman came up to the vehicle with some baskets, put them inside and the man went back inside to pay. 

The woman opened the passenger door, clipped a leash on the dog and let him out. The dog went over to a raised garden area bordered by horizontally stacked treated posts located directly in front of the retail store, lifted his leg and peed on the corner. 

He followed the same procedure two more times with the woman standing there gazing around, and all of this went on in front of my car with me watching and other people a few feet away.

This offends me and I’m sure many dog owners will say I’m getting excited about nothing because the dog didn’t hurt anything. 

That’s not the point.  Why should the public have to tolerate people allowing their pets to eliminate their waste wherever they wish? 

While I was sitting there I thought maybe I should get out of my car, go over to the same spot, turn my back to the lady and pee where the dog did. 

What would she say to that?  No doubt she’d be disgusted, even though I didn’t hurt anything.

I don’t believe dog owners should be allowed to presume they can allow their animals to eliminate wherever they happen to be at the time, unless there are designated areas.

 Rob Williams

Parksville

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