Easier to catch dog walkers than thieves

I never complain or feel the need to write a strong letter, but today after seeing signs appear on the Low Moor playing fields all but banning my dog, unless he’s on a short leash, has really got my goat.
DogDog
Dog

This is pretty much a blanket ban on dog walking in the whole of Clitheroe, which is OK if you have a chihuahua, but I have an English Springer Spaniel and Clitheroe has a large portion of Springer Spaniels and Labradors.

I understand dog muck is a problem but the people who don’t clear up their dog muck still aren’t going to clear up their dog muck.

What has changed?

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I’ll tell you what has changed. It’s hard to catch somebody in the act of leaving their dog’s mess, much easier just to catch anybody who lets their dog of the leash.

One of the joys we have is playing ball with our two children and our dog, Buddy. It gets us all out.

Now our nearest walk is down a dark lane for half-a-mile so we can let him run in the fields near the weir, if there’s not a sign banning dogs down there. It will be real nice for my wife in the winter when I’m working away, walking Buddy down there!

The real sting in this for me is the absolute lack of consultation. No letters through the door, no chance for a vote. All I can presume is that some Stalin-like leader at the top of the communist RVBC stepped in some dog s*** while buying his morning paper and decided to punish the masses rather than find the culprits.

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A final point – who is going to enforce this? The police? Are they going to hide in the bushes to catch us lawbreakers? That’d be good so the lovely thieving community can carry on robbing the tools out of my van. Twice. But then if they get caught they don’t get the threat of a thousand pound fine.

In fact I know somebody who recently got caught drink-driving for the second time and didn’t get a thousand pound fine.

But let your loving hound sprint free after a tennis ball and that’ll be £1k thank you.

Well I for one will not be bowing down to Mr Stalin and his commies. My Buddy will still be running free with his big floppy ears flapping like Dumbo’s. And if Mr policeman does issue me with a fine then I’ll use it to pick up my dogs mess and place it in the appropriate bin – the council office letterbox.

Chris O’Neill and family,

(and the dog owners of Low Moor and beyond)

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