Pet Owners Have A Real Obligation To Respect The Law, Their Neighbours, And Themselves Better Than This

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It’s not hard to understand why so many people that don’t own or want pets, are becoming increasingly hostile toward pets and pet lovers.

I’ve commented on the City of Toronto’s unacceptable destruction of College Park, a once beautiful green space amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.

Today, the plants, grass and trees pretty much all dead from the City’s willingness to “snuff out the park” (a park that was historically maintained on taxpayer dollars) to accommodate a developer’s need to repair the water membrane of its commercial parking garage located below the park!

For over a decade now, the developer has enjoyed the unique sales and marketing tool of having contributed $3.5 Million to the City to renovate what was at that time a beautiful park with a skating rink in the winter and fountain in the summer.

The City earned tens of millions of dollars in Permit fees alone and the tax payer base resulting from the addition of over 2,000 residential condo units may equate to tens of millions more, a year!

The local City Councillor has for years perpetuated this myth about “having negotiated the park renovation while fiercely negotiating with Canderal Stoneridge, the developer to all for the city’s highest residential building“.

The truth is that I knew of this $3.5 sales and marketing tool, long before she was elected!

The developer walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars in profits as did the City of Toronto.

But approximately five years back the needed moisture membrane issues consistent with owning a below ground parking garage became more apparent.

So the developer simply asked the City to “turn off the water to the park“.  Less water . . . less leakage to the developer’s commercial space.

Once again, the taxpayer (you and I) end up taking the hit!

Since the City chose to turn off the water and kill the park, it has become a frightful place, where pedestrians no longer want to venture into.

We taxpayers had historically budgeted for and paid for the park to be maintained but apparently, the commercial needs of the developer took precedent over the taxpayers.

We taxpayers lost our park (ongoing maintenance for which was already budgeted for, out of our taxes)!

The developer got a great marketing and sales campaign and the City got lots, and lots of cash!

When you see the horrific cash flow that the City enjoys from condo development in Condoland, it becomes clear how we end up with such a chaotic and distasteful end product.

So when the Developer and the Municipal Government and Provincial Government all make out like bandits, the logical question is “from whom do all these dollars come from“.

That’s right, the entire tsunami of dollars from Condoland all come directly from us, the taxpayers.

Is anyone confused enough to think that they are playing on a level playing field?

College park is representative of everything that is wrong in Condoland and throughout Ontario (and other Provinces as well).

There have been at least one “day time rape” in the park!

I’ve got a photo collection of transients urinating and defecting in the park.

Groups of drunken street people now congregate each morning thanks to the introduction of an LCBO (alcohol store) into College Park last summer, adding fuel to an open flame that has burned for five or six years now.

Now, I don’t have anything against pets or pet owners but as I said at the opening of today’s blog I do understand why people are becoming more and more openly hostile toward dog owners these days.

My office directly overlooks the park so I have a unique eye on the activity and I consistently am offended to watch dog owners consciously avoid picking up after their pet.

This is a public park where I used to watch mom and dads teach their children to skate or just hang out in the summer to the relaxing water feature.  Today, with so many people not picking up their dog shit, the park is a mess and no where even close to serving families as their child is as likely to end up covered in shit.

One owner has a full size Doberman Pincer and a full size Husky.

The other day as I was outside of my office I noticed him looking precariously up over our building while his Husky did it’s thing and then continue walking.

I politely mentioned to him that he must have missed his dog going to the bathroom and asked that he pick it up.

Well, I’ve blogged before about Toronto’s ignorant and hostile car drivers.   Well, apparently they also are consumed with this Jekyll & Hyde syndrome while walking!

He became incensed and immediately verbally and physically abusive.

There is one real drag about being 67 years of age in that you can no longer just take out a buffoon like this guy!

One thing that you’ve got to do when confronted with such an intellectually void individual is either run and expect an ongoing slanted relationship with him or jump into the mud in which he dwells and talk his language.

I made sure that everyone walking buy understood what this was all about, but this guy could care less about what all these people could or would think.  He was locked into a childish and personally degrading pantomime that he had obviously exercised many times before.

The following day, true to form, he once again appeared with both dogs running off leash and he quickly came over to visit me while I took his and his dogs photos and once again the insult fest erupted.

I’m not about to tolerate this kind of stupidity and the think to do is to call the police, which I did.

I was impressed with my reception at the police department switchboard and was referred by them to email my complaint.

I can tell you from life experience that the moment this clown chose to charge up into my face, he “assaulted me“.  Many people confuse his not having touched me with him not assaulting me.   The act of charging up into my face despite having not touched me is “assault“.  Touching escalates the “assault” to “assault and battery“.

The switchboard operator was quick to reaffirm to me that so far we “had only had an argument” and that there was little that could be done.  She did give me an email address and suggested that I contact that email as it was for bicycle officers who could enforce laws such as dogs running off leash in public areas which I learned results in a $350 per incident ticket per animal.

She suggested calling 311 (a City hotline) so I did but the switchboard operator insisted that I “needed the address of the dog or its owner for them to send out a violations officer“.  I knew the building and tried to explain to her that not even the concierge in that building could tell me that but she did not want to listen.

Last evening I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of bicycle officers at my door, who just wanted to let me know that my email had been received and that the police were taking my complain seriously.

There really is nothing more, at this point than I or anyone, can ask.

The signs are all over the park telling owners that they must pick up after their pet and they must also keep their pets on leash.

Is it really too much to ask or expect that people will respect one another (let alone those who don’t even want or like dogs) enough to simply obey clearly posted signs.

My disappointment results from the realization and observation that there is a lot more people like this guy around than there are people like me who are willing to speak up!

I’m Charles

 

 

 

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