At-heel survives City Council

At last night's Woodstock City Council meeting, an agenda item to remove the at-heel provision in the dog-control law failed.

Woodstock resident and businessowner Mark Indyke had collected and presented petitions with approximately 500 signatures of residents who asked the City Council to remove the at-heel provision. Doing so would mean that all dogs in Woodstock in the "public way" would have to be leashed.

Mark didn't attend last night, but his wife, Leslie-Anne addressed the Council and did a good job of presenting the problems and dangers of some off-leash dogs. Mark was in Florida to celebrate his mother's 90th birthday. You had your priorities straight, Mark!

Three early-morning runners who are accompanied by their off-leash dogs were as persuasive as the pages of 500 petitioners. Maybe more so. Perhaps the 500 names should have been read to the Council. Or maybe all 500 should have shown up last night. What if each had taken three minutes to pitch his or her position. We'd still be there!

The Council felt that the current law protects residents adequately. It will, however, consider increasing the financial penalties by raising both the current minimum and maximum fines for violations.

The Council deliberately for quite some time. It probably wouldn't have mattered if Mark's mother had been born a month one way or the other from October 19. Being there, Mark, wouldn't have made any difference. Being with your mom was the right choice.