Good cops - bored cops
Ok, so Montreal has pretty strict leash laws. As in, if you’re caught with your dog off-leash you get a $100 fine plus a bonus $41 ‘administration fee’.
Now I’m all for enforcing leash laws on a beautiful weekend days when the parks are busy and people want to be able to throw frisbees without some strange dog interrupting their fun. But…at 7:30am on a rainy weekday when the only people out and about are other dog owners trudging through the mud in hopes of giving little Spot a few moments of freedom…come on now.
Thus far I have eluded the dog police rather handily. I have had a run-in with the horse cops but they were sufficiently amused by the sheer whimpiness of Meeka to let me off with a warning. But I was thinking last night, what happens if Meeka gets a ticket for being off leash when the dog walker takes her.
We have never discussed this, nor have we discussed the on-leash, off-leash options. When I am out with the dog I make a judgement call as to whether I let her off or not….I’m not sure what he does. I don’t want to get hit with a $141 dog walking bill but neither do I want to tell him never to let Meeka off the leash.
Has anyone in blog land had any experience with this kind of thing?
I feel as though it should follow the same rules road-trips have:
Everyone shares parking tickets, the driver pays speeding tickets.
Not to be contrary, but when I bike to work, at least once a week I almost hit dogs that are (illegally) off-leash. I’m fine with dogs being off-leash on Mont Royal (as long as owners pick up their dogs turds), but bike/running paths are different. So far I’ve avoided hitting any, but it’s only a matter of time…and since this is the US, I’m sure I’d be sued for hitting the animal…