Sunday September 30, 2007

PD beaches off-limits to dogs

AS a service to its members and to the society, the Malaysian Kennel Association conducts Canine Good Citizen courses.

These courses teach dogs how to behave when they are in public, meeting other dogs as well as other people. Owners are also taught how to handle their dogs in such situations.

On Sept 16, we organised a trip to Port Dickson for some of the students attending our course together with their families and their dogs.

The trip was to spend the morning on the beach, giving the dogs a rare opportunity to be in a natural and neutral environment.

The timing of this outing was planned to coincide with the fasting month when Muslims do not normally go to the beach.

We arrived at the Kg Nelayan beach (Batu 4) at about 8.45am. At about 9.10 am, four enforcement officers from Port Dickson Municipal Council arrived and ordered us to leave as we were in a public area and therefore dogs were not allowed.

We appealed on the basis that there was no sign barring dogs, but we were told that if we did not leave, the dogs would be rounded up and that we would be issued a summons.

Since we had come all the way, we were prepared to accept the summons.

They issued us a notice that stated that we had illegally brought our dogs to the beach.

We are aware that certain areas are off-limits to dog like playing fields and public transport areas.

But surely there must be other areas where we can bring our dogs. The authorities cannot unilaterally say that all public places are off-limits to dogs.



WELLINGTON HO,

Chief trainer,

Kuala Lumpur.