Niagara Falls Review e-edition

A warning sign for dog owners

St. Catharines family working to add more leash signage to park after dog mauling tragedy

MATTHEW P. BARKER THE ST. CATHARINES STANDARD MBARKER@NIAGARADAILIES.COM

A St. Catharines family is working to have more leash signs added to a park after their dog was mauled to death by an off-leash dog last spring.

Danielle Barker has been working to get signage added to the Woodgale Park area after the family’s three-year-old teacup toy poodle Mookie was killed during an incident with an off-leash dog, while her husband and son were out for a walk with the family’s dogs.

“We usually go to Woodgale Park, which is near Glenridge Avenue and Glendale Avenue, we walk there all the time,” she said.

“They came up the path to a soccer field where a woman was throwing a ball to an off-leash German shepherd, upon exiting the path, it saw our three dogs and started running,” she said.

Barker stated before her husband Blaine or their son Marshall, 20, knew what happen the dog attacked their three dogs and had grabbed their teacup toy poodle by its midsection mortally wounding it.

According to Niagara Dog Rescue the dog responsible was named Duke, a German shepherd rescue from Kentucky described as good with people including kids, “but has a high prey drive.”

“It is a tragedy when something like this happens and an animal dies, that is why we are continually trying to prevent incidents like this from happening through education and training,” said Kelly Jackson, training co-ordinator for Niagara Dog Rescue.

Jackson said people fostering dogs go through training on how dogs react and how to deal in situations when they occur.

“We tell fosters they should not allow the dogs in any way, shape or form off leash, and no dog parks, because of the issue with fighting,” she said.

“Certified professional dog trainers put together a host of webinars to help dog owners and they’ve specifically designed ones called The Rescue Plan,” she said.

She said the hope of training is to help fosters understand the animal better and to prevent incidents of aggression.

“We don’t want any dogs under the rescue to be causing injury to other dogs,” she said.

“We’ve told fosters what we expect, but obviously, some of them, they’re not going to adhere to the policy all the time.”

Depending on the circumstances of the incident, enforcement can result in several things happening including charges and fines, said Kevin Strooband, executive director of Lincoln County Humane Society.

“We can charge for running at large if the dog was loose, if it wasn’t loose, it doesn’t matter, we would still investigate depending on the severity of the bite,” he said.

“If it’s a repeat offence, we may or may not proceed with the Dog Owners Liability Act and ask for a hearing under that legislation.”

Strooband contends the challenge is if future incidents occur with the dog, the courts see it as the first time, as there is no history.

Barker said, in the months following the incident she has advocated for more signage informing people using the park to keep their dogs on a leash to prevent incidents and further animals losing their life.

“We spoke to Matt Harris, our (city) councillor and he’s getting on it, so there’s signage in all the spots,” said Barker.

She added currently there is limited signage on one side of the park which most people miss or disregard.

“As soon as you come into the parking lot, there should be a big sign, there’s a sign about picking up their feces,” she said.

Soon signs will be added to the park warning people about keeping their dogs leashed, as fines will be enforced, said Matt Harris, Ward 2 (St. Andrew’s) city councillor for St. Catharines.

“No matter what you do, there’s always going to be issues like this because people don’t always have common sense,” he said.

“It’s not the people with the dogs on the leash. Sometimes there’s people walking with dogs off leash. They just assume they’re friendly dogs and chances are they’re not.”

He said the key to avoiding this from happening again is by using signage and enforcement.

“My role as a councillor is to listen to constituents and try and figure out a solution, so signage and enforcement,” he said.

Harris said when it comes to the dog, dog owners are usually neglecting their duty and not paying attention to warning signs that cause issues.

“It’s not so much there’s bad dogs, there’s bad dog owners, people don’t pay attention to their dog’s behaviour and assume their dogs are super friendly and leave it off the leash and things like this happen,” he said.

Harris emphasized sadly this impacts people who are good dog owners and train their dogs to be able to walk off leash and not stray far.

“But we do have dog parks in St. Catharines, so if you want to walk with your dog off leash, go to Burgoyne Woods or to the other dog park,” he said.

“There’s a dog park within a mile of where that incident happened,” he added.

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2023-02-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

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