Dr Liz... the mad vet from Russell Vale Animal Clinic: Dear Wollongong City Council

Our dog Piper, who loves the beach!

Dear Wollongong City Council,

RE: Your Review of Dogs on Beaches and Parks Policy

There are many many areas in our beautiful city that do require your attention and review.

Our city centre is a dead zone, the shopping precinct at Piccadilly is an eyesore, and there are many side streets that still don't have guttering or decent playgrounds.

Weeds are overgrowing on the freeway, potholes are popping up in local side streets, and for all of this wonderful negligence, council rates have increased dramatically each year.

What I am trying to say is, albeit poorly, whilst we appreciate that you are showing an interest in our four legged friends, denying them access to the beaches is a not a cool way of showing it.

There are a lot of other more immediate, more serious problems that do need to be addressed in our beautiful city! And we need serious people to deal with them. Are you one of them?

I know stepping in dog poop is not pleasant, but if this is your reasoning for stopping our dog access, then you should also stop them from walking our streets too.

Oh please do not say that you are considering that too!

More people step in dog poop on our grass verges than they do at the beach. I know that we clean up dog poop on our front lawn all the time, and yes, it annoys me too.

But I am not writing letters into council complaining about it, I just try to educate pet owners on responsible pet ownership.

Let us get back to your existing park "off leash" areas.

So let me be honest with you....your park "off leash" areas suck.

We road tested a few of them several months ago, from both Wollongong and Shellharbour Council Areas, and we will continue to road test more in the next few months too.

And so far, what you currently provide for our dogs is appalling and substandard.

The majority were near busy roads with no fences; they were really just a big park area with not much there!

So far, Piper has enjoyed the beach the most. And you don't have to invest any big bucks here at all... just keep your mitts of our access areas to the beaches!

The rock pools, the waves, the sand dunes offer enough entertainment for our pets, and for us pet owners - we have a blast too!

Here are the links to my previous posts about the dog parks, where we "road tested" them on several points

We looked at

Availability of drinking water
Materials to clean up and dispose of poop
Space available to romp
Fences and Entry/Exit gates
Visual barriers
separate small and large dog areas
Available activities - i.e fun stuff - either natural or man made

Each one was given a score out of 10, by us aswell as Piper.

Shellharbour Beach

You should read, and see for yourselves how insufficient the grass areas you are currently providing ... if you are going to stop dogs from accessing our beaches, then you really need to invest big in providing decent off leash dog parks.

I mean, lots of dollars to get them to any sort of suitable standard. It will take a lot of dollars to get them up to any suitable standard, and that is dollars taken away from the areas that seriously do need your attention (I refer you to my earlier list of eyesores in the Illawarra)

Keeping dog beach access as it stands, or even giving us more green areas, isn't going to cost you a cent! Win- win, don't you think? And we will love you for it to when the next election rolls around.

Not sure what is out there for our dogs? Here is an honest view of it all....
Wollongong Dog Parks....
Part One:

Part Two:

So, dear Wollongong City Council, be fair to all of us, not the noisy minority. Please, pretty please!

Yours

Dr Liz, the mad vet from Bellambi Lane, on behalf of her family pet Piper