Marilyn Lapointe wants to change our bylaw prohibiting loose dogs on Willows school field.
This is particularly laughable in light of the ongoing controversy around deer control: there are over 1,000 dog attacks and about one fatality per year in Canada, with the victims mostly young children. By comparison, the risk of a deer attack is negligible, and the risk of hitting deer with one’s car is mitigated by the beneficial act of driving more cautiously.
Dog owners who resent having to travel the short distance to nearby beaches such as Willows (where dogs may be off-leash from October to the end of April), and who would prefer to demote children’s rights to a safe playfield, perhaps ought to rethink the responsibility of dog ownership.
School fields are first and foremost for children; they might as well be for deer, too, in my mind, since our four-year-old daughter is (quite sensibly) afraid of loose dogs, but finds our harmless local deer a delight.
Samuel Mercer
Oak Bay