Tag the dog
Published on June 15, 2011
Published on June 15, 2011
Elisabeth Faure
Westmount’s canine ID card policy angers owners
Westmount’s new policy of making owners carry plasticized identity cards for their dogs is meeting resistance from Westmounters and non-residents alike.
Topics :
Westmount house , Concordia University , Westmount , Verdun , NDG
Sent by mail to Westmount license holders three weeks ago, the cards come with the purchase of a $20 dog license, and are available to non-residents for $40 each.
Architect David Ludmer dotes on his Dalmatian, Bailey (he calls her Bea or Lady Bea), and refers to her as “the love of my life.” For him, the new law doesn’t make sense.
“I think it’s a level of complexity a person doesn’t need when you are trying to maintain your best friend,” says Ludmer. He thinks between making sure your animal is healthy, happy, and well-fed - plus, “making sure you have enough poop bags in your pocket,” dog owners have more pressing concerns.
Most of the time, Ludmer carries his card in his pocket, but admits that some mornings he forgets it and worries he’ll get fined by Public Security officers.
Sylvie Prud’homme lives in Verdun with her two Burmese Mountain dogs. “We go everywhere together,” she says. On weekends, the trio visit friends in NDG, Île Perrot, and Île Bizard — but Westmount is no longer on the list.
Since the new law, Prud’homme won’t go into Westmount with her dogs. She says her friends will have to come visit her in Verdun instead.
Prud’homme acknowledges the $40 cost for a non-resident card “isn’t the end of the world,” but says a principle is at stake. “What if every neighborhood decides to do this?” she asks.
Prud’homme’s decision to boycott Westmount carries a professional impact — she teaches dog obedience classes and often brings her dogs along for demonstrations. She won’t be making any more Westmount house calls.
Journalist and Concordia University instructor Elias Makos lives next to Westmount’s border. He often takes Otis, his Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, to the Westmount Park dog run. “This whole new Westmount rule ... it’s not rational,” says Makos. “There is no common good being served by this.”
For Makos, getting a special tag to walk Otis a few blocks from home represents an overly bureaucratic approach. He questions the need for such a rule. “It’s as though someone is trying to come up with a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” he says.
“Who decided this?”
City of Westmount officials insist that the ID tags make perfect sense.
“This is only enforcing a policy in place since 1946,” says City Councillor Cynthia Lulham, who is also Commissioner of Parks and Urban Planning. “In Westmount, you always had to have a Westmount dog license.”
Lulham says the City is cracking down in response to dog owners who claim non-residents are overcrowding dog runs. “If everyone has a dog license, then we know who is using our facilities,” says Lulham. She adds it’s easier for City inspectors to read the identity cards, since some dogs don’t like getting approached by strangers.
Lulham, who owns two rescue dogs (Bobo the Chihuahua and Kiki the Bichon), is aware some don’t like the new rule, but maintains she wants to give it a try, and promises the City will apply the law in a reasonable manner. “We won’t be patrolling the borders of NDG,” she says with a laugh.
Still, the public outcry against the ID cards remains loud and clear. One dog owner took the protest to Twitter this week, urging owners to congregate in Westmount Park this weekend and encourage their canines to bespoil its grounds. The suggested title of the event rhymes with “Sit-In.”