Large-breed dog owners unhappy

By Collin Gallant on October 24, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

Dog owners are expressing shock that they will lose one of the largest free range off-leash areas in the city.

On Monday, administrators unveiled their final plan to comply with provincial regulators to protect archaeological sites beneath the Saamis Tepee, an area south of Kin Coulee, which for decades has also been open as off-leash area to dog owners.

The new plan is described as “on leash and on trail,” but administrators also stressed on Tuesday the hope is to expand a formal network of trails in the sprawling flood plain to include some dirt tracks that have been worn down.

“We still want people to go throughout the site,” said James Will, the city’s general manager of parks.

“We have intentions to develop trails and intention to develop water access, but we’re working with the province on making that happen.”

The eventual plan for the area also includes interpretive signs that will provide information and locations of a series of Indigenous encampments that date from 3,000 BCE to the mid-1700s.

Since 1984, it has been a designated provincial historic resource in care of the city. Last winter, regulators received complaints about wear and damage to the site’s prairie grassland. Watershed rehabilitation groups have also focused on shorelines damaged by flooding, but say vegetation hasn’t taken root because it is being trampled.

“The biggest thing is that we have an obligation to protect the site.”

The on-leash requirement is a sticking point with many of the dog owners the News contacted on Tuesday.

In Medicine Hat all lands designated as “environmental reserve” are open to off-leash activities, including portions of the city’s heritage trail network.

It also lends to some confusing localized rules, and some debate over the years, pitting walkers, strollers and joggers against dog owners.

On McCutcheon Drive in Crescent Heights, for example, the hill side of the trail is off-leash while the road side is not.

In 2012, a suggestion from the Medicine Hat Police Service suggested consolidating areas with more specific rules, but council shelved the proposal after a public outcry.

Mike Steiner helped lead public opposition that year, and for the last number of years has sponsored an annual spring cleanup of trails to help promote and advertise responsible dog ownership.

“It’s going to be a huge issue,” Steiner said of the plan near Kin Coulee. “There are a lot of dog walkers in this city.”

He agrees that an expansion to the formal trails would be welcome, especially if the current dirt trails in the area were gravelled to discourage human, not dog activity on fields.

“That’s a beaten path mainly because of people, but on 15 feet either side the grass is pristine,” he said, saying he believes dogs aren’t the problem.

Ashley Van Ham, who took her doberman-shepherd cross, Bear, to the area on Tuesday, said the area is one of few central areas that can accommodate large-breed dogs with reduced chance of conflicts, either with pedestrians or other dogs.

“Down here if there’s a problem you just go in the other direction,” said Van Ham, adding that she has been admonished at other off-leash areas and trails for having such a large dog off leash.

She feels that mixing leashed and unleashed dogs, such as on general trails, leads to dog fights and conflict between owners.

Kari Ursulescu, another patron on Tuesday afternoon, agrees, and felt a better solution could have been found.

“I’m shocked,” she said. “We come down here every day. I’m not sure what we’ll do. It’s close to home and he’s such a big dog.”

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