Editor: Re: Pat Cady letter to the editor Dec. 10 – Problems in Turdmore
I am a long time mountain community resident and have written my share of letters to the editor on irresponsible dog owners for their many selfish ways ... not the least of which is refusing to pick up after their canine companions. These people know what needs to be done, they just plain refuse to take their responsibility of dog ownership seriously because there are currently no consequences.
As Pat Cady (a dog owner herself) mentioned in her letter, fecal matter is a very concerning environmental issue.
When condo owners in big cities in the U.S. and now finally in Canada, have to resort to DNA testing to find and charge offenders in their respective buildings, we have a huge problem. And those are the buildings still willing to take pets ... most will not anymore. Can we blame them?
If the (healthy outdoor?) mountain town of Canmore cannot do any better at managing this out of control environmental failure, then who can?
There have been countless articles/letters written in the Outlook over the last two decades. Why are our Rocky Mountain townsite officials not listening? This is a major concern to many of us, with and without dogs. It is being said that Canmore has more dog feces on its trails and parks than any other place in Alberta.
There are over 90 million dogs in North America (they have now surpassed the number of children). That is over 10 million tons of untreated feces that enter our environment every year – 10 million tons that eventually end up in our water courses.
I’ll bet most (local) Canmore ‘poopetrators’ generally appear environmentally concerned on the bigger issues that are not in their back yards, but will turn a blind eye to Fido as he does his daily business. They’ll talk pipelines, not poop.
I became a member of the Facebook page C.R.A.P. (Canmore Residents Against Poop) last year and was amazed to see so many concerned dog owners as members. There is a long way to go, but I thank Rick McGaw (a very responsible dog owner) for starting the group, doing countless poop pickups himself on local trails/parks and trying to win a losing unenforced battle within his mountain community.
I challenge the town of Canmore’s leadership to host and attend a town ‘poop pick’ to collect the same amount (or more) of dog feces as Rick and his volunteers do. If the town’s leaders are not willing to step into the challenge, then how about stepping up enforcement?
The good guys are definitely in our midst.
Thank you to Pat Cady and all the great members of C.R.A.P. for being good guys.
For the record; Turdmore encompasses a much wider geographical area than just Canmore.
Karla Gaffney,
Yoho National Park
