Calls to reconsider off-leash areas, enforce bylaws in Nose Hill Park

Nose Hill Park off-leash concerns Increased bylaw enforcement and a review of off-leash areas are being called for to protect visitors and wildlife. Bill Macfarlane reports.

A regular visitor to Nose Hill Park is imploring the City to intervene and enforce or alter its rules to better protect the wild animals that inhabit the park as well as domestic dogs.

“It’s disturbing to see the amount of dogs chasing the wildlife and nobody’s being held accountable,” said Tara Little who walks in the park multiple teams each week and is a member of several nature organizations. “You have complaints coming in from every source. People being jumped on. People being bitten in the park. You have people in the dog areas with their dogs, calling in (to Bylaw) and saying my dog’s being attacked.”

“I don’t understand why it has not been made an on-leash park.”

Roughly 30 per cent of Nose Hill Park is off-leash, primarily a section surrounding the gravel quarry near the centre of the park, but Little says many dog owners unleash their dogs in other areas or are oblivious to the bylaw that requires dogs to be leashed when wildlife is nearby.

According to Little, on-leash areas reduce the likelihood of a dog being quilled by a porcupine, disturbing a coyote den, tempting a predator, or trampling a bird nesting on the ground.

“I want future generations to see what we’re able to see today. Without the wildlife we don’t have this natural beauty.”

Little adds that irresponsible owners are failing to pick up  after their dogs in Nose Hill Park. “You can see the amount of dog poop that’s being left that can lead to disease, that is leading to disease to wildlife, to other dogs in the park.”

Dr. Shelley Alexander, a University of Calgary professor, confirms the uncollected feces could risk the health of coyotes and domestic dogs alike. “There is a larger concern here and that would be the transmission of any kind of parasites between the species.,” said Alexander. “They’re all canids so some parasites are able to transfer back and forth. One of the research findings that we had was that , although sites in Calgary might be very isolated and coyotes might not be interacting, if people are taking their dogs back and forth between those parks they may be transferring, if they don’t pick up the feces, may in fact be transferring things from one park to another.”

Alexander says the frequent invasion of coyote den areas by off-leash dogs is a problem that escalates.

“Nose Hill is such a high use area and there are on-leash and off-leash areas up there and we do know up there that there’s historically a lot of den invasions by domestic dogs and that is creating a situation where wild animals, and coyotes specifically, are under a lot of pressure and under a lot of tension. They have to direct that somewhere.”

“Are we amplifying the risk of them attacking people as well? We can’t just think of it as a one-off, this is happening multiple times to these animals and it has consequences for them.”

Ward 4 councillor Sean Chu says he hopes bringing awareness to the issue in Nose Hill Park will prompt improved behaviour amongst dog owners as he doesn’t want to change the park’s rules.

“Many people enjoy the park and many pets as well,” said Chu. “It’s unnecessary to go to that extreme that we restrict the off-leash area. I just want people to be aware it’s not the whole Nose Hill Park that’s off-leash, it’s not, only a certain area. You’ll see signs on top that will tell you either it’s on-leash or off-leash.”

The Ward 4 councillor says Little’s concerns regarding the park are legitimate, I think she’s trying to do the best she can to make the situation for everybody’, and she is not the only one to reach out to him about the problems in Nose Hill Park.  “Every day I get emails and phone calls and I’m sure after this interview there’s going to be more.”

Chu asks dog owners to pick up after their pets and to not allow their animals to chase wild animals. “Don’t be that bad apple to ruin it for everybody else.”

With files from CTV’s Bill Macfarlane