On Sunday morning Nathalie conducted her monthly bird count accompanied by Ruth who made her own survey.
She found that 30% of dogs were “off lead”. I think there will be a snowball effect as more dog owners see the rule that all dogs must be on leads is not being enforced. I observe that the dogs off lead are well behaved, friendly and under control. There was one instance of a dog attack this year but the owner and his dog were not regular visitors to the cemetery, so I consider that is an outlier. So why should dogs be on leads?
Probably because I grew up in Catholic Ireland I turned to the Church. I expected the C of E or the diocese to have made a ruling on the matter. As so often, I was wrong. The rules are made by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and a new Public Spaces Protection Order came into force on 18th June 2023. It applies to all parks, open spaces and cemeteries in the borough.
“You must keep any dog on a lead in all:
- cemeteries and churchyards
- wildlife conservation areas including Wormwood Scrubs and Bishop’s Park
- café and tea houses
- outdoor gyms”
So there is legislation backing dogs being on leads that could be enforced and fines imposed. But this may be a bit heavy-handed and indeed may only achieve success when H&F Law Enforcement Team officers are on site. Incidentally dog poo must be picked up and dog walkers must carry poo bags and may be asked to show them to an officer. To me this smacks of “stop and search” and I have never heard of it being enforced.
It seems to me there are, at least, two reasons to keep dogs on leads. First, if the rule is flouted, the legislation could be changed to ban all dogs from Margravine Cemetery; it is a working cemetery after all. Secondly, when dogs are off leads their owners do not see when they poo. Some grass is left uncut and the reason for that is another story but Nathalie tells me when she is hunting for insects and beetles she sees markedly more dog poo, often hidden in long grass but as often in the open. This for me is the most compelling reason to persuade dog owners to abide by the rules.
On the Northumberland beaches on Saturday and Sunday, Bertie was off his lead and it turned out to be a two person job picking up his poo. While I picked up the first poo my nephew looked out for a second poo (he often does a right and left so to speak) – often some way distant – and marked it. I was reminded of marking shot snipe when I used to shoot on the bogs around Barmeath. They were hard to find; small brown birds in large brown bogs. Bertie liked to camouflage his poo in clumps of seaweed the same colour.
I walk Sunny with a group of dog walkers, almost all of whom let their dogs off the lead. They are all well behaved dogs, and their owners are always looking out for, and picking up, their poop. But sometimes it’s missed, to be sure. Here, at this time of year, it can be easily disguised within the falling leaves.