Dog-walkers overwhelm Thetis Lake trails

T he first time I realized the power of regulation was in the mid-1990s, when I made a winter trip to Puerto Vallarta. A couple of hundred Canadians shuffled into the Mexican airport, where many proceeded to light up.

Smoking had been banned in most public places and workplaces in Vancouver, where the flight originated, for almost 10 years. And it’s not as if these people hadn’t been hammered with messages about the dangers of second-hand smoke. Did they care about me and my lungs sucking in their foul fumes as we all shuffled through customs and security procedures? Apparently not.

Maybe it was partly a reaction to regulation back home, but regardless of the reason, moral suasion clearly wasn’t working on these people.

Sure, we’d all like to believe that, given the choice, people will do the right thing, but often, we’d be wrong.

Take speeding. Many people speed through my daughter’s school zone on a daily basis. They know it’s dangerous, they know it’s wrong, but they still do it. Why? Because they’re in a hurry. Their needs rise above those of all others. And the chances they’ll be ticketed are slim to none.

People, incredibly, still text while driving, because, despite the odd police blitz and tough penalties, there is no certainty they will be caught.

And as a wise person once said, it’s not the possibility you’ll get caught, it’s the certainty that changes behaviour.

We’re selfish, we human beings, and that selfishness leads to daily acts of incivility — such as lighting up in an enclosed public space, just because you’re allowed to, or speeding through a school zone or texting while operating a powerful road-borne weapon, just because you probably won’t get caught.

Which brings me to View Royal Mayor David Screech’s attempt to bring regulation to the growing number of dog-walking companies using Thetis Lake Park as their base of operations.

Bravo, Mayor Screech. Why anyone in their right mind would think it was a good idea to let packs of six, seven, eight or more dogs run off leash under the supposed control of one human is beyond me.

I long ago stopped using those trails with my kids, after one too many encounters with commercial dog-walkers and their trail-hogging charges, along with a curious abundance of off-leash pit bulls. (Yes, I’m sure he’s very friendly. It’s just that every time a pit bull attacks a child, adult or dog, the owner says, with apparent wide-eyed astonishment, that it’s the “first time.” So no, I don’t want to sacrifice my child or my leg to your dog’s “first time,” thank you very much.)

Apparently, we need to move to regulation where common sense has failed.

Which brings me to a commonsense-related side issue: If you don’t have time to walk your dog, why do you own one? Isn’t that one of the main requirements for dog ownership, as your parents told you when you were nine and begging them for a puppy? “You’ll have to walk him every day, you know,” said Dad, puffing on his pipe.

Dad did not say: “You’ll have pay someone to pick him up in a van and walk him every day, you know.” Oh no, he did not.

So who came up with this new system, where you outsource this key component of dog ownership? Sure, some dogs might need to be walked multiple times a day.

Well, here’s a thought. If you don’t have time to do it, don’t get that kind of dog.

If you walked your own dog, maybe I could use the Thetis Lake trails again.

Failing that, we need some rules limiting commercial dog-walkers to one dog off-leash at a time, as well as restricting the number they can have in their care and control at once. And I’m sorry, but Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen’s suggestion that dog walkers merely need to be asked to prove control by calling their six-plus dogs is lame beyond belief. Which municipal official is going to take on this task and how regularly? Nobody and never, most likely.

As long as humans are weak and selfish and greedy, apparently we will need regulation.

Frankly — sorry, libertarians — I don’t see any end to it.