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It’s a complicated dogs’ world in Vancouver

August 14th, 2011 · 44 Comments

Everyone thought that it would be a simple solution for conflicts over dogs in parks: Off-leash areas.

Then, when it seemed like that wasn’t quite enough, some fenced dog parks.

But no one’s happy with that either, as I discovered when I got assigned to research this story.

The Vancouver park board, Metro Vancouver, and various municipalities are all trying to figure out solutions to what is turning into an ever-more-complicated tussle among competing groups who all want to use the parks: large-dog owners, small-dog owners, non-dog-owners, horse-riders, cyclists, advocacy groups on all sides.

The dial is going to get turned up on this talk with the Vancouver park board’s move to come up with something beyond the current situation, which appears to be in the direction of more fenced parks. The city’s animal-control department also says it has tried education and it’s got them only so far. Now they’re moving to zero tolerance.

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