Editor:
Re: No support for dogs on promenade, Feb. 9.
It was a semi-sunny Sunday morning and I had just finished my walk at the White Rock beach front.
Unfortunately, I stepped in dog feces on the sidewalk just outside an East Beach restaurant. I was able to avoid the previous pile I had encountered in the middle of the sidewalk on the hump 10 minutes earlier, but in this case the main blob had been tracked out to a larger area and now it is embedded in the treads of my runners.
Who would allow their dogs to take a dump in the middle of a sidewalk on Marine Drive? Or in front of a restaurant? Who would allow their dog to defecate in the middle of the sidewalk on George Street, less than half a block from White Rock Elementary? There it was last Wednesday, waiting to be tracked into one of the classrooms.
This is not a new problem. I have been walking to and from the beach for the last 20 years, and have always been astounded by the amount of dog feces I see on the sidewalks along Marine Drive and Columbia Avenue, in particular.
Maybe some people find it on their lawn and then flick it off their property onto the sidewalk. Sometimes it is in the middle of the pier tracked along by some unsuspecting tourist for about 20 feet. Sometimes it has been deposited in a plastic bag and tucked into the branches of a hedge.
People who know me are aware of my love for dogs. We often visit the walk along Dallas Road in Victoria where thousands enjoy the park with their dogs on- and off-leash each day, and you never see any feces.
Why is it that dog owners in Victoria, Comox and other communities on Vancouver Island can be responsible and pick up after their dogs, and so many people in White Rock can not?
Gerry Busby, Surrey