South Bruce Peninsula council has voted in favour of continuing to ban dogs from being on Sauble Beach between June 1 and Labour Day.
A recommendation was brought forward to continue the ban at council’s meeting on Tuesday.
Currently, the municipality does ban dogs on the beach between these dates, but the dogs that classify as services animals under the Accessibility for Ontario with Disabilities Act are allowed, as long as the owner has with them the needed paperwork and present them to enforcement officers.
This prohibition is due to the number of people who visit the beach, and the report says, there is a likelihood the excrement would not be cleaned up. There would also be a chance of some aggression from some dogs, as well as fights, excessive noise, running around at large, and the fear some individuals have of dogs.
“There are so many people that are afraid of dogs, their children are afraid of dogs and dogs off their leash would be very likely. There are certain people who do not clean after their dogs and things get buried, and the kids play in the sand with their pails and shovels,” says South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson.
Jackson says this past summer an enforcement officer was even attacked by a dog when they approached a group on the beach.
She explains every year they deal with this issue. This year, however, they decided to reach out to their constituents to see how they felt about the dog policy.
The report says a number of comments came from people saying they would support dogs on the beach if the town had a location specifically for them. Other comments were received about how dogs would need to be leashed and enforcement would be paramount.
When the report came back to council, Jackson says they made the decision to stick to the status quo and keep things they way they have been.
Other comments expressed satisfaction with the Twinning property, which permitted dogs. Over the past couple of years, the town had leased the Twinning property and did not permit dogs on these lands, to expand the beach area.
Jackson says this year, the property north of the Sauble sign is not being leased by the municipality, and the owners of the privately owned beach will be turning the area back into a parking lot, and they do welcome dogs on their section of the beach.
“It is not like there won’t be any place at Sauble Beach to take your dogs, you will be able to take them to the section just north of the Sauble sign,” says Jackson.