Dog owner flouting leash laws raises concerns
By Isaac Olson
Harvey Fox, a resident of a 220-unit apartment complex on Adalbert Ave., says there is a tenant in
his building who re- fuses to leash his problematic dogs, but police won’t accept citizen-captured
video footage, witness testimony or photo- graphic evidence as an enforcement tool. “He just
lets them run wild,” Fox told the Côte St. Luc city council on January 23, describing the dogs as
pit bull and husky mixes. He said that he has made numerous complaints to Public Security and
police, but in order to enforce the city’s leash by-law “they need to see it them-
selves.”
Fox said the man’s dogs have attacked his own on January 4 and when he tried to intervene “like a
rag in a thunderstorm, I was tossed around.”
Mayor Mitchell Brownstein noted that this type of incident can be reported to po- lice, but, Fox
replied, there were no dam- ages. He said the problem is that police are waiting until someone gets
hurt rather than responding to complaints.
The man was caught once, said Fox, but it has not deterred him from walking his dogs without a
leash. It has continued to be a problem, he noted, since last spring. Fox said he tries calling 911
and Public Security when he sees the man walking his dogs off leash, but “they don’t want to deal with it.”
Fox admitted that it is a difficult case to enforce, but it would be a lot easier if police could,
at the very least, rely on video footage captured by citizens.
Brownstein said he will look into boost- ing patrols around specific times. Brown- stein said he
will have the city’s director of city services look into what can be done. He said the city will
look into what type of evidence is accepted and “we will work to- gether with you.”
Councillor Mike Cohen, responsible for animal welfare in the city, thanked Fox for bringing the
problem forward. He said there was a similar issue on Rembrandt Ave. where the dog owner was
finally caught and ticketed. It worked for a while, but then the owner was eventually seen walking
the dogs off leash again.
“This is unacceptable,” said Cohen, call ing it a typical example of the pet owner being the
problem, not the pet. “The owner has got to take responsibility. Please continue to let us know and
I send that message out to anybody in the community who is experiencing a similar situation be-
cause most dog owners in Côte St. Luc are very responsible.”
