oh, fred told me quite a story today.

he was at the dog park (which schweppes of course!) when he saw this strange dog that seemed to be a bit agressive. his master seemed to control it, though, so fred decided to take our dog in the fenced-in area. a boy ran up to fred and asked if he could pet schweppes, if he was gentle. he had apparently been bit by the other dog (that also looked like it could be a golden).

anyhow, schweppes played with the other dogs for a while and fred was talking to other owners until he heard barking and wimpering. the dog was climbed up on schweppes, attacking and biting him! fred asked the owner to control his dog (who had been showing off earlier about being good at controling!) which didn't work. fred got excited and started screaming so loud that the dog backed off and left schweppes alone.

the owner eventually told fred : 'no need to get all worked up, man, it's only a dog.' fred made a couple of angry comments and then left the park saying that aggressive dogs should not be allowed to play there.

i looked up information and the city actually is supposed to control and inspect play areas. unfortunately, no signs are posted dictating the behavior of owners and pets in this area. and, well, i've certainly never seen an inspector anywhere in this city! also, dogs that are caught biting a human or another dog are supposed to be museled and eventually put to sleep if training classes do not improve their behavior... though no one really knows about this bylaw. further more, you are apparently supposed to report that incident, to the cops while specifying the address of the owner... now, i'm not sure it would be very smart to follow the owner around just to get their address!

even more troubling, a guy fred knows told him he no longer takes his dog to dog parks since he saw a dog literally get killed by another one in a park.

i'm really not sure what to do about this. we thought of putting up a sign at the dog-pen stating that law and giving the number you should call to report such an even. maybe it would deter a couple of people from taking their agressive dog there... as long as the sign stays up!

in the mean time, the smart thing seems to be to avoid that place altogether!