Awareness campaigns only do so much
It’s simply an awful coincidence that, just two days before a dog attack caused “life altering” injuries to a child at a waterfront park, Toronto city council was debating and approving a strategy intended to prevent exactly those kinds of attacks.
But still, the attack coming on the heels of council’s March 21 vote to adopt their new dangerous dog strategy did a lot to make the new strategy look a bit toothless.
One of my biggest issues with it is that the new strategy leans heavily on a massive public education campaign to be launched in 2025 — if Mayor Olivia Chow agrees to include it in her budget next year — and expected to cost as much as $500,000. That number, the report to council says, is at least eight times larger than the typical awareness campaign the city runs reminding dog owners of the rules around things like keeping dogs leashed.
The campaign will be designed to “educate people about the importance of keeping dogs leashed and to promote general responsible dog ownership” and could include “TV, radio and other digital platforms, transit shelter and digital screen advertisement space, sponsored media content and a comprehensive multilingual strategy.”
Call me a cynic, but I don’t see how this could possibly make much difference in preventing attacks like the one at Little Norway Park. The idea that owners of potentially dangerous dogs — especially the 450 dogs who have already been deemed dangerous by city hall — will happen across a sponsored Instagram story and suddenly become a more responsible dog owner strikes me as pure fantasy.
And for those who could be victims of attacks, it’s hard to see much use either. I guess some ads could be useful to let people know about the other major component of council’s new dangerous dog strategy: a website that will list the names, breed and general location of all the dogs deemed dangerous by the city’s animal control officers. (The name of the owner, notably, will not be included.)
But while I always welcome more public data, I have trouble imagining many real-world use cases for this database that improve safety. People, I guess, are supposed to pull out their phones when they see an unleashed dog at a park, comb the database for potential matches, and then, um, ask what the dog’s name is?
Including photos of the dangerous dogs might help, but that’s not part of the initial strategy. Instead, a report on the “privacy, technology and legal considerations” of including doggy mug shots has been requested for this submission to council this October.
While we wait, I think it’s worth thinking seriously about whether this public education campaign is a good use of money. Heck, it’s worth thinking about if most public education campaigns are a good use of money.
I know I seem to be swimming against a powerful tide here. Campaigns designed to educate the public or make them aware of issues have become a standard part of government response to a range of issues. Toronto’s municipal licensing and standards division, in addition to the dangerous dog campaign, has also noted of late that they’re gearing up for campaigns on issues like noise, coyotes, heat, fireworks, leaf blowers, rules for landlords and the importance of not feeding wildlife.
Plus, over the past few years, council has greenlit motions for campaigns about the importance of not idling your car, not driving drunk, protecting your business from break-ins, being safe on the roads and the impact of the transatlantic slave trade. This year, the budget includes $270,000 for a campaign on the importance of “allyship.” Meanwhile, the TTC last week launched a series of ads reminding riders they should pay their fares.
Toronto’s municipal government is not alone in its addition to awareness and advertising, of course. CBC recently reported that Premier Doug Ford’s government spent $8 million on “It’s Happening Here” ads that seemingly exist to insist the government is doing a good job, while provincial transit agency Metrolinx ponied up $2.25 million for ads insinuating you’re an ungrateful rube for getting frustrated at prolonged construction for transit projects.
Still, there’s good reason for some government advertising. The city putting out ads reminding people of the deadline for declaring whether your home is vacant — and subject to the new vacant home tax — is a good example. I’d also love to see the TTC do more to make the public aware of service changes.
But a lot of government campaigns aren’t like that. Instead, they too often seem like attempts for governments to look like they’re doing something to solve a problem without really solving it.
And there are always trade-offs. The same budget contemplated for Toronto’s dangerous dog ad campaign could fund about four new animal control officer positions for a year. That’s spending that could open the door to a radical new approach: instead of just reminding people that rules exist, the city could try enforcing them.
THE STAR’S VIEW THE CITY’S APPROACH TO IRRESPONSIBLE DOG OWNERSHIP DEMANDS URGENT REFORM A12