Ban dogs from Duncan market
Dear Duncan mayor and council, and CVRD directors:
While we welcome our popular market’s pilot plan to bravely open third Thursdays monthly, we fear those plans still allow potentially dangerous dogs.
Details appear in the April 25, 2024 Citizen.
Neither Duncan council nor the market’s board will explain why dogs have not been logically banned, for safety sake, from our Saturday market and city square — especially after last year’s biting injuries.
Council and the board simply state dog-bite liability rests with dog owners; a ridiculous, risky, hands-off stance tasking bitten folks to get canine owners’ names en route to the hospital.
Comparatively, dogs are wisely banned from many B.C. markets, festivals and elsewhere to prevent such tragic injuries by the pets we all love.
Incredibly, city council and the market’s board seem sublimely content to wait for more bites to occur before banning canines from our city square and market.
Again, we implore both bodies to pull their heads out of their dog-food bowls and ban dogs from our Saturday and pending night markets before more injuries happen.
Hopefully that safety policy will draw even more market shoppers downtown.
Yours in public safety,
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan