Editor:
I would like to add my support for allowing dogs on the promenade. Why should leashed dogs be prohibited from walking with their owners on the promenade when they are permitted on the sidewalks uptown and even on Marine Drive, past all the restaurants?
They can stay by your feet while you eat on the patio. Dogs can go into real restaurants in Paris, for goodness sake, and no one bats an eye.
Dogs give owners the incentive for going outside and getting exercise in the fresh air, as well as meeting others and socializing. Dogs make wonderful companions, especially for single people and seniors.
As for extra expenses at the beach/promenade, I am sure that pet care/food providers will help out in exchange for advertising.
Surrey has a dog beach area at Crescent Beach which is open all year. I have not heard any dismal tales about it.
Contrary to what some people think, dogs do not take up a lot of resources. Their commercial food is primarily made from by-products which don’t make the ‘human chain’ and are otherwise wasted. Many table scraps are suitable for dogs, too. Dogs don’t require huge houses, flashy cars, expensive jewelry and fancy clothes. Do humans even need these?
Children raised in homes with pets and on farms have fewer allergies.
Dogs serve us in countless ways: as guide dogs, in hospitals and schools, on police forces, as comfort animals, for search-and-rescue, etc. They have been faithful companions and assistants for thousands of years.
What we really should be concerned about is the way humans are systematically destroying our planet, and mainly in just the last 100 years.
If we don’t start thinking about worldwide human overpopulation soon, there will be more wars, famine and disease. And the natural world does not deserve to take our abuse.
“We have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us.”
P.J. Rust, White Rock
