Be careful with dogs off-leash

from article

Hi everyone,

I had a scary incident yesterday at Long Lake provincial park and I was hoping you will take a few minutes to pass this email on to any of your dog loving friends who may use the park. I walk this trail occasionally and had just been there the day before with my own dogs and although it is not the most popular entry point, I know of another dog walker and a few other people who frequent the spot. The incident occurred on the Prospect Rd. side, behind Exhibition Park. I was walking four Springer Spaniels who love to bound through the woods but always "resurface" frequently and check in with me. It didn't take long for me to notice the mom of the group was missing. I began calling her and walking back along the trail but no sight of her so I walked back to the truck thinking she may have become disoriented but she was not there so we walked back down the trail again.

Fortunately, one of her daughters alerted me to something in the woods and I followed her in to find her mom sitting next to a small bush, not moving but still alive, about 15 or 20 feet off the main trail. It took me a while to realize the reason she was not moving was that there was a snare like the ones I have attached wrapped around her neck and she was actually suffocating. I reached in between the snare and her neck to give her a bit of air and thankfully I remembered an email that had been sent around a couple of years ago saying to do the opposite of what you would want to do ie: pull the snare apart so I pushed the snare closer together at the top of the dogs neck and thankfully it quickly unlatched and I was able to free the dog without further incident. She is doing fine now.


This could have ended so much differently and I am so thankful that it turned out the way it did but if you are like me, you may have a false sense of security on provincial park trails when it comes to hunting. I just want everyone to be careful - if possible keep your dogs on the main trails, you may want to put bells on your dog so they are easier to locate if they are out of sight and if this does happen to you, remember not to panic. Thanks to one of my other dog walking clients, I will now have a pair of wire cutters in my first aid kit (which can be purchased at Bark n' Fitz downtown) that I always carry with me when I am out hiking.

I have informed the department of Natural Resources about the incident and the Springers' owner will be taking this to the next level so at the very least there will hopefully be more signage letting people know they are not allowed to hunt back there.