Last Sunday the ninth AIDS Walk in Kelowna drew several hundred people and no dogs.
Well, actually there were several dogs, all well behaved. But dogs were not officially allowed to accompany their people on the walk. The organizers had signs up about not allowing dogs.
I was torn. I wanted to raise some money and walk, but I’m still angry at City Council for not resolving the issue of no dogs. The problem is that lots of these “charity walks,” as the Council refers to them, either begin, end, or pass through City Park or Waterfront Park, and no dogs are allowed there.
Before 2003, dogs raised money for the MS Walk, but that year the mean-spirited, small-minded people who run the city decided to enforce the by-laws. People complained to City Council, and supposedly, this was to be dealt with. But no one was made accountable for dealing with it, so here we are in the fall of 2005 with the same problem.
In the end, I decided to raise what money I could and walk. For every $100 in pledges to the AIDS Walk, I donated $10 of my own (not the pledged) money to the Okanagan Dog Owners Association.
It was a beautiful fall day, and a nice 3K walk. It would have been even better with a dog.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
AIDS Walk
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2 comments:
Dogs and parks, and narrow thinking seem to plague dog owners everywhere. Here in Sheboygan, Wisconsin dogs are not allowed in parks except for a retention pond area on the south side, a heavily wooded park on the north side, a walking path along beautiful Lake Michigan (all on lead) and a small section of Lake Michigan's beach (off lead).
My group, D.O.G.S. (Dog Owners Group of Sheboygan) has been working toward the establishment of a fenced, dog exercise park of at least 10-acres. Progress has been slow.
We have over 13,000 licensed dogs in our county and probably another 15,000 that are unlicensed. Compare that to about 3,000 softball players who have access to dozens of softball fields, all city owned and managed. Doesn't seem fair, does it.
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My daughter-in-law has MS, and we annually participate in the MS Walk in her community where dogs are not only welcomed, they are given sepcial gift bags filled with wonderful treats.
i was glad to see that there are people out here in sheboygan that are trying to work out great solutions for our four legged fury friends...i live on the north side of this city and i feel very fortunate to have the heavily wooded area north of me to take my dog ( an austrailian shepherd named bonus) out to this wonderfull place...to him its magical...and i really do enjoy seeing the wildlife there...today we made it all the way to the lake!!..on the way seeing canadian geese..mallard ducks...wood ducks...redwing blackbirds..and a lot of other birds there...i love to hear them !!!..when we finally made it to the lake i think bonus was more elated than i was...he seemed to know exactly where we were going and so led the way !!!he loves jumping into the river there...he insists that i throw sticks into it and so that he can swim..i has also veiwed a sand hill crane there ...and there are a lot of deer !!!...none of which seem to mind that we are there...we usually go as a family there being the outdoors type of family that we are !the trails are certainly wide enough...personally i would like to see the trail actually extend all the way to the lake...the main tail usually seems to stop at a point where there are some larger sized rocks...they can be walked but good hiking all terrain type shoes would be needed...there seems to have been either other people or possibly deer traficc that have made trails around such matter but inly to come to a wet mucky area thats almost impossible to cross...or as the summer rolls on and the nature of things grow...is hard go go around...unless of coarse you follow deer trails that are smaller and then you may not know what you will find...i guess what i am saying is i can definately see this north side location developed more but also to keep it in more of its natural state...developing the trails to be more accessible to the lake would be nice !!!
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