Dog Tales
Teddy Boy
The nice curator of Hastings Cat Chat kindly ran a letter from me in the last edition of HIP despite my moaning about her feeble feline column. Well, my complaint seems to have paid off and ‘in the interest of balance’ HIP’s asked me to write something about us dogs.
I mentioned that canines feel discriminated against, but it’s not just by this paper, more importantly it’s by Hastings Borough Council. They have just extended the already labyrinthine (yet snappily titled) “Dog Control Public Space Protection Order” after months of so called ‘consultation’ which, as far as I know, didn’t involve actually consulting any canines at all.
Anyway, Judy Rogers, lead councillor for planning, governance, and community safety (another nice snappy title) introduced it by saying: “We want to make it simple for people who are visiting our town or people who are living here so that they know when they can have their dogs off the lead, when they should be on the lead and where they can and can’t take dogs.” Excellent. Thanks. Very helpful. But now try to decipher the proposed rules.
Let’s stick to the beaches where we love to run at low tide. In West St Leonards from Bulverhythe to the area around the Azur, from 1 April to 30 September, dogs must be on a lead from 09.00 to 17.00. So in Winter, and in the evening and night (when it’s pitch dark) we are allowed to run free. Thanks. But if we somehow wandered (or were foolishly guided) from Azur to the Pier we would be breaking the rules because we are excluded between 09.00 and 17.00 from 1 April to 30 September. (Got it? There will be a test later). In the same area all dogs must be on leads at weekends from 10.00 to 16.00 between 1 October to 31 March.
I don’t know about you but I’m beginning to lose the plot. Let’s see what the rules are in Central Hastings. From the Pier to Rock-a-Nore, dogs are excluded between 09.00 and 17.00 (1 April to 30 September). But in the winter all dogs must be on leads at weekends from 10.00 to 16.00 between 1 October to 31 March. That’s dead simple Judy. Thanks a lot. But that’s not all. The exclusion order for Rock-a-Nore beach “will not apply to dogs used by the town’s fishing industry”. Huh? What dogs are used by the Town’s fishing industry? I mean we are pretty good at many things, but fishing? And do Fisher-Dogs poo less than the rest of us?
Frankly I think the whole thing is absurd. In the rare event that a forgetful dog-keeper neglects to pick up a poo from the beach, isn’t it going to be flushed away – twice a day – by the tide? These days there seems to be more poo IN the sea than on land tanks to Southern Water. My people tell me it’s probably unsafe to swim – either for them or for me. And if any of you can cast your long memories back to Rowena Rowling’s article of October last year – who’s going to stand around all day making sure we keep clean and our leads on anyway? Nobody (I hope)! So come on HBC, be sensible. Allow dogs on the beach all year round, two hours either side of low tide. Now that would be simple to understand.
Depending on available space, HIP may occasionally run an Animals or Pets page. If you’re particularly knowledgeable about animals and domestic pets and want to submit something, please write to [email protected].
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply