I normally try and avoid the park in the late afternoon/early evening when I know the dog owners show up and let their dogs loose. (there's no off-leash area ... though there is in another park just up the road - Google says 550 metres, a 7-minute walk).
However earlier this evening my 5-year old burst into tears when I told her I didn't want to go to the park with her and play football, because of the dogs. So I gave in.
The park was pretty busy. A baseball game in full swing, some people playing frisbee ..., kids everywhere on the pavement. And about one spot left far enough from the baseball, and not near the frisbee. But sigh ... those off-leash dogs were about 40 metres away. Oh well, we didn't need much space.
Of course, sooner or later, a ball went astray, and went about half-way towards the dogs. Of course the dogs take this as some kind of invitation to come see me ... and I tried to shoo them away, and then I asked the owners (who were walking over) why they weren't on a leash .... (the usual non-response ... though one or two did then leash their dogs).
As I'm heading back to where we were playing soccer, I was annoyed ... and figured it's time to complain to my councillor (previously I've complained to the city Animal Services, but they say there is nothing they can do after about 6:30, because they aren't on duty between 7 pm and 7 am). So I figure I should grab a photo to show my councillor ... so I turn around and take one of one dog ... and then another towards where a group of dog owners are standing with dogs still off-leash. About 40 metres away.
One of the women then comes over and tells me I'm breaking the law by taking her photograph without her permission (from 40 metres on a cell phone?). I tell her that there's no such law, and remind her that her dog is off it's leash. Then she threatens to call the police. I ask her to call the police (the thought had already cross my mind, but surely it's a waste of police time to be complaining about loose dogs). She seems surprised, and then threatens to take photographs of my 5-year old. Kind of creepy ... but we are in a public park, so there's nothing I can do to stop her ... so I tell her to go ahead. She seems to be at a loss, and starts swearing at me (in front of a 5-year old!) and calls me rude (?!?) for taking photos. She takes no responsibility for her dog being off leash, because it's "harmless". (not sure what that has to do with it).
Of course then my daughter is not very happy and wants to leave the park ... this woman seemed to make her uncomfortable, particularly when she threatened to take photographs of her.
I assume I'm correct and there's no law against taking photos of adults (or even children for that matter) in a public park - particularly from a distance? I can't find anything. I did find one website that noted that threatening someone to delete photographs that were taken in a public place is a chargeable offence as assault. (though perhaps simply threatening to phone the police isn't a strong enough threat to trigger this). I can't fathom how an adult thinks it's okay to both break the leash by-law, and then bully people who complain.
As far as the dogs go ... I really don't know what to do. I doubt my councillor will be very active. Animal services say they can't do anything after 6:30 (it was about 6:40 when this happened ... in a very busy park). It seems excessive to be calling the police. Most of my attempts to talk to people in the park when something happens are brushed off.
This isn't an isolated event. It seems to happen every time I'm in the park at that time of day (well, the dogs - the irate dog owner was a new twist). The time before last I had a baby with me as well ... so I stayed very far from a couple of dogs. But they slowly wandered my way ... kids and a ball seem to be a magnet - and suddenly one very big one (my gosh, I think it was big as I am) ran up, and put itself between the 2 kids, and looked aggressive (I have no idea if it was or not ... but I don't appreciate being put in the position to choose which child I'm going to have to protect ... it was about 1 foot from the baby who had burst into tears, so I picked him up first). Again, amazingly, the owner didn't even try and do anything ... just standing there about 60 metres away. When I shouted at them, they slowly came over and took the dog away. But wouldn't say a word.
Is this normal? Are these problems happening in parks across the city? I'm just shocked how horrible these dog owners appear to be. And it isn't a bad neighbourhood! It's a relatively new problem for me, as my daughter seems to have suddenly taken an interest in soccer.
I feel I can't even take a child to play in the park! When my daughter was smaller, we'd stick to the play structures ... but even then I've been there with her, and a dog has run up and peed on the structure while we were playing on it. The owner right behind ... with a kid with her for goodness sake. She seemed hostile when I complained. Other times people have showed up at the play structure with loose dogs running around ... though have reluctantly leashed them when I've asked.