Morrell Nature Sanctuary Society is muzzling a policy that allowed dog owners to let their pets off-leash on its Nanaimo Lakes Road property.
Developed in 2008, the policy opened areas beyond the parking lot and Woods Room meeting place to off-leash privileges. Dogs also had to stay 50 metres away from any school programs taking place within the sanctuary.
“A lot of our members had dogs, so we developed an off-leash area, copied some rules from the city’s off-leash area above Westwood Lake and added a few little rules to it,” said Patrick Ansell, society president. “It started off extremely well, but suddenly last summer we were overwhelmed with people coming in and it got to the point where there was complete abuse of all the rules.”
Dogs were attacking other dogs, seniors became afraid and some pet owners were abusive to society volunteers when reminded of the rules.
“A lot of people don’t know this is a private nature sanctuary, but thought it was city-owned property and they have the right to walk their dogs off leash,” said Ansell. “Quite frankly, it’s becoming a bit of a nightmare for us.”
With increasing incidences and member complaints, the society is revoking off-leash privileges as of March 31. Dogs and their owners are still welcome, but must remain on a leash.
Ansell said the decision was made as the sanctuary gears up for its school programs in the spring.
“We had nearly 700 children go through our school programs last year and while there were no incidences reported to us, it was always an effort to get people to put their dog on a leash when they were near these children,” he said.
“If anyone was ever bitten or mauled during our summer camps, it would throw the whole program into disrepute.”
While not blaming the City of Nanaimo, Ansell attributes some of the influx of dog owners to steps taken by the city to control dogs in parks.
“A lot of people believe Morrell is a city park and we are situated between the off-leash areas at Westwood Lake Park and Colliery Dam Park,” he said.
The Colliery Dam Park off-leash area is a one-year pilot project opening the upper dam to dogs from 6-10 a.m. The society is encouraging the city to open that off-leash area for the entire day.
“The furor of dogs in various places of the city has driven people to the sanctuary and with 111 hectares, we are having a difficult time enforcing the rules,” said Ansell. “We are going to get tough and repeat offenders of the rules will receive letters banning them from the sanctuary.”
Jeff Ritchie, senior manager of parks and civic facilities, said he heard Morrell Sanctuary is used a lot for off leash, but the city can reinforce the off-leash site with signs bordering the property at Westwood.
“It is privately owned and if they’re in transition to an on-leash area, we can certainly make it known where the off-leash, on-leash areas are,” he said.
Signs informing the public of the change will go up at the sanctuary. Letters will also be placed on windshields of vehicles in the parking lot.
