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Image Credit: PEXELS
February 04, 2024 - 3:30 PM
As dog ownership rises, municipalities around Okanagan are spending more on dog parks and an animal law expert says it's about time.
Penticton is temporarily closing the Ellis Creek off-leash park, so crews can work on the upgrades that are a part of the city’s $200,000 dog park upgrade plan. Enderby is working to build its first dog park and is reaching out to the community for input with a survey.
“We’re excited to dig into these projects and to create more inviting and enriching play spaces for your dogs. In the meantime, since we’ll be operating heavy machinery, we may need to close the parks temporarily for days here and there to safely conduct the work,” Tory Young, Penticton parks technician said in a news release earlier this week.
Animal law expert and UBC adjunct professor at Allard School of Law Victoria Shroff says it’s about time municipalities are improving their dog park infrastructure.
READ MORE: Pets are now considered family under BC law
“We’re seeing more and more people getting dogs. As a result it’s time for cities and municipalities to step up and provide the infrastructure so people can take their dogs to parks where they can be off leash. It’s a really important part of a dog’s health and welfare to be able to run freely and safely,” Shroff said.
She has advised different municipalities on their dog park infrastructure in the past and said a lack of dog parks can create problems in a community.
“What happens is people are inclined to let their dogs roam off leash anyways,” Shroff said. “The last I saw there were some 17,000 licensed dogs in Kelowna alone. When you have that number of dogs and a lack of dog parks you’re going to have problems.”
She said investing in dog parks is like investing in any other non-critical infrastructure, there are going to be people against it.
READ MORE: Penticton considering $200K worth of improvements to dog parks
“You have to look at the benefit to the overall community. It’s like saying that just because you don’t skate you shouldn’t pay for skating rinks, or because you don’t have kids you shouldn’t pay the school taxes. You are living in a community,” she said.
Building and improving dog parks is a cost-effective way to improve a community.
“($200,000) is not that much in the scheme of a municipal budget, usually when things are designed properly it’s money very well spent,” Shroff said. “It also encourages people to meet their own neighbours in their own neighbourhood which is huge for municipal planning.”
— This story was updated at 3:20 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5, 2024, to clarify Victoria Shroff's title.
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