Unfortunately, there are some irresponsible dog owners who do not pick up after their dog, which certainly does not help our cause. On March 21, 2009, we sent a letter to the mayor of Borough Ville-Marie asking him to take concrete actions  in order to punish severely this lack of civility. Since January 2011, there is a canine inspector assigned to Borough Ville-Marie. He should keep us posted about the number of tickets distributed.

Apart from walking, dogs also need to exercise freely and socialize with other dogs. That’s why in many cities we find dog parks. When we presented our dog park project for the Old Montréal to our City Counselor, Catherine Sévigny, she immediately welcomed it with enthusiasm and took it under her wing from the beginning until its official opening on September 20, 2007. We then named it “Pilote” to honor the legendary dog who saved Ville-Marie from an Iroquois attack on March 30, 1644.

Park Pilote rapidly became an oasis and a meeting place enjoyed by both dogs and dog owners. Situated at the corner of Duke and Brennan St, next to Bonaventure Highway, it will inevitably be affected by the work planned by Société du Havre to take down this highway. But after a few years of tergiversation, in April 2011 we learned that this work won’t be done before 10 or 15 years and maybe more. So we immediately contacted Borough Ville-Marie in order to give them our requests to improve our dog parck. Among them, we asked that the surface be covered with fine gravel instead of grass and that more lightning be added in the park.

We also informed Borough Ville-Marie of our intention to invest part of the membership money we accumulated by adding a shelter in the park, two benches around the trees, an agility course, a message board, etc. During our meeting on June 8, 2011 with the Director of Public Works, Michel Gagné, and the landscape architect, Roxanne Lessard, they explained to us that the security norms for a shelter or wooden bench to be installed in a private property are different than those to be installed in a City park. This is undestandable. We also informed our City Counsellor, François Robillard, of our demands.

But, as much disappointing as unexpected, the response came from Michel Gagné of Public Works on October 28. He informs us that due to the imminent start of work at the Bonaventure highway, it is likely that the exercise area for dogs at the corner of Duke and Brennan has to be relocated.  Follow up on our link What’s new?

So here’s what summarize the main objectives of the Club:

1. •Try to convince the Old Port Corporation of the non-sense of banning dogs from their site at all time.
   

2. •Help to encourage people to pick up after their dogs.
   

3. •Keep a responsible eye on our dog park and its future.
   

The vitality of our club relies pretty much on its members. If some of you wish to participate by proposing activities or just by keeping a vigilant eye on the park so it stays clean and well taken care of, you are most welcome. Let’s work together with a common goal, which is to improve relationships between our best friends and the humane society of Old Montréal.

If you’d like to become a member, click here. You’ll receive the occasional Newsletter, you’ll have the privilege to buy bio poop’n scoop bags at a good price and we’ll add the picture of your dog to our Website album.

Marlène Savard