Senior expresses approval of shrinking dog park

By Medicine Hat News on August 3, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

While many Hatters have expressed disappointment with the city’s proposal to limit the off-leash dog walking space at Kin Coulee Park, Erika Bauer says it’s been a long time coming.

Bauer, 76, cycles and hikes frequently in Kin Coulee, along with her husband, Burt.

“I’m a senior citizen and I’m not too excited about biking when dogs are running loose,” said Erika.

She feels that whether the dogs are big or small, they pose a potential safety hazard to cyclists and themselves.

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Erika has spoken to each city councillor, expressing her support for the proposed changes.

“I know people really like dogs and I’m not saying I dislike them,” she clarified, adding that her daughter who lives in Calgary is a proud dog owner.

“He’s a lovely dog,” she said. “I like him.”

Erika has lived in the Hat since she was 11 and feels seemingly overnight all parks became off-leash areas, she said. “I don’t understand that.”

It seems to Erika that the proposal to limit off-leash dog walking in Kin Coulee is a sensible compromise.

“People can walk their dogs on a leash and then they can go to the places where it is off-leash,” she said.

The city’s rationale for limiting off-leash areas at Kin Coulee has more to do with its status as a provincial archeological site, rather than the safety of cyclists.

Erika says she’s also sympathetic to that viewpoint.

“I was thinking that’s probably what’s happening,” she said. “It never used to be off leash at all … You had to have your animals on a leash and all of a sudden it was off leash.

“I believe, yes, they’re doing damage to whatever is around there.”

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