How would you suggest we state our case?
At stake for dog owners is the ability to walk their dogs off leash,
which presumably gives the dogs about 10km of exercise for every km the
owner walks.
At stake for us is ... what? The survival of the very occasional
locally rare bird that's common further north. The possible
recolonisation (if that's a word) of the area by this and other unknown
species. A more interesting outing for birders. It might not sound
very urgent to a non-birder.
We'd be asking them to give up a very valuable resource, so I think a
lot of compromise from both sides would be necessary in order to come to
any agreement.
Peter Shute
wrote on Sunday, 17 February 2008 5:18
PM:
> Like Tracey, I'm also a member of both, and our very popular dog club
> follows the same criteria of responsible dog ownership. And
> while I love
> birds, I wouldn't be a very happy person without my dogs and
> our various
> canine pursuits (obedience, flyball and agility training and
> competing). While many people can live happily without 4 legged
> friends,
> I'm certainly
> not one of them. And I also do get a LOT of enjoyment from
> visiting wild birds (wedgies, nesting Buff-banded Rails, resident
> Choughs, corellas etc), many kangaroos & echidnas to our property -
> we are Land for Wildlife accredited. With a bit of care it is very
> easy to have
> both. I do realise
> that unfortunately not ALL dog owners think alike having
> recently had a
> heated 'issue' with a neighbour over their wandering beagle.
>
> The Vic body is Dogs Victoria (just recently had name change from The
> Victorian Canine Association) It puts out a very nice
> monthly magazine
> and I think Tracey's idea is a very good one.
>
> Cheers,
> Karen Pearson.
> Warrandyte Sth, Vic
>
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