I’m a dog owner but tend to agree that a busy Saturday market is not really the place for pooches, leash or no leash. I also feel the same way about baby strollers, but let’s not go there today.
A couple of months ago we went to the Saturday market on Salt Spring Island where dogs are also banned. But they have a brilliant solution: just outside the market is a separate grassy area where dogs can be left, for whatever donation one can afford, in the care of volunteers from the local SPCA.
We witnessed a number of dogs being cared for separately by individual volunteers, as well as a group of dogs playing happily with each other in another section of the temporary enclosure.
At the Qualicum Beach market, the grassy and treed area between the market and the railway track at the market’s entrance would be the perfect spot for just such a makeshift doggy day care.
I challenge our local SPCA to look into and perhaps adopt this idea. The dogs would get an outing but not get under foot, cranky dog-averse market-goers would be placated, and the SPCA could make a few bucks. Win-win.
Lenore LeitchQualicum Beach