Editor:
When it comes to restricting access to people who bring dogs to the promenade, maybe we should do a double-think. Think about those who don’t bring dogs to the promenade area and how well they behave.
People who bring food don’t always clean up after themselves. Some is left where it falls (ice cream, french fries and the like) and leave their wrappers behind.
Some smoke their cigarettes and flick their butts in any direction. They infringe on the very point of being at the seaside – fresh air. Their butts are toxic to people, animals and birds and a fire hazard, but we still let them come to enjoy our beach.
There are some who bring bread and feed the scraps to the birds in the area and have little knowledge as to the harm bread does to their gullets. Even further, there are now edibles laced with marijuana that may be left behind. This is highly toxic to any animals, birds as well as children. We still let them come to the promenade.
Dog owners are generally concerned with cleaning up any deposits their animal makes, yet finding a good place to sit along the promenade is sometimes difficult because of what ducks and geese leave behind. Maybe we should ban ducks and geese, too.
We all wish to share our waterfront and, in general, we all respect the need to keep it safe from foreign objects, regardless of where they come from. We have a parks department that works endless hours making our beach a pleasant place to visit.
Let’s not single out one sector of our population and restrict them from the enjoyment of our beachfront area. Dog owners are not all polluting idiots. Those that are, it would seem, are no worse than those others listed above and we seem to tolerate them well enough.
So enough about dogs and the beaches.
Don Patterson, White Rock