Dog discrimination
Rottweiler owner disappointed with Slemon Park dog park rule
Molly was all set for a day at the park but ended up going home disappointed. At six-months-old, Molly’s family was taking her out to play for the first time. But when they arrived and reviewed the posted rules, they discovered Molly actually wasn’t allowed to be there. Molly is a pure-bred Rottweiler. The sign, posted at the Slemon Park Hounds Grounds, indicates that pit bulls, Rottweilers and “other lock jaw breeds” are prohibited. Tasha Ramsay, Molly’s owner, was surprised to find the rule, especially since the myth of the “lock-jaw-type dogs” has been debunked. “She had to wait until she had all her vaccines before we could take her to any of the dog parks. Now she’s up-to-date on them all and we thought we’d try the one closest to our house first,” said Ramsay, who lives in Miscouche. She added that socializing Molly with other dogs while she’s young is important to help her curb some of the breed’s more aggressive instincts, and It’s hard to do that without access to an offleash park. “She’s just a big lap-dog that wants to be everyone’s best friend,” she said. There are two off-leash dog parks in the City of Summerside, one in Slemon Park and the other on Seaweed Road, off MacKenzie Drive. The latter is managed by the city and has no breed-specific rules, but the former is managed by Slemon Park Corporation, which is a provincially owned Crown corporation. Shawn McCarville, president of the Slemon Park Corp., said the rules Ramsay has raised concerns about were introduced several years ago following incidents specifically involving pit bulls and Rottweilers and crosses of those breeds.
One incident involved a police cadet being bitten. The corporation also has a clause in its lease agreement with its 250 residential tenant units prohibiting some larger dog breeds, include those two, and some exotic pets. “We’re just trying to manage this property on a reasonable basis and we’re airing on the side of people’s safety in terms of our management of the overall property,” said McCarville. He also acknowledged that the sign’s wording regarding “lock jaw breeds” is out of date, but stressed that the intent of the rule is to minimize the risk of incidents involving some breeds of large dogs. Some jurisdictions across the country have introduced breedspecific dog bans. Ontario’s pit bull ban is probably the most widespread. Ramsay agrees that problematic dogs and owners should absolutely be barred from entering the park, but she questions the policy of having breed-specific rules. “It would be nice if they would stop discriminating against certain breeds. That’s what I would like to see,” she said. Dr. Alice Crook, co-ordinator of the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre at the Atlantic Veterinary College, agrees with Ramsay. Crook helped develop P.E.I.’s recently updated Animal Welfare Act and dog breed-specific legislation is something she’s followed closely. She was surprised to learn about the Slemon Park rule and is not aware of any other parks on the Island with similar rules, though some do have separate playing areas for small and large breed dogs. “Banning a whole breed doesn’t make a lot of sense – it really doesn’t.”