Don't walk your goddamn dog without a leash at ten at night on the unlit bike path!!

The BBQ Pit
1

So there’s a transit strike in Montreal so I rode my bike to class tonight. Just before I got home, I passed SOME IDIOT WOMAN who was walking her (black) dog UNLEASHED on the unlit BIKE PATH (which you may remember from such rants as The BIKE path is for people on BIKES. That is why it is called the BIKE path).

Sure enough, after I passed her, the dog darted onto the path, an oncoming cyclist ran into it, and judging from the horrible cries it was making, the poor thing got creamed! I had to hear the dog shrieking in pain! I hope the poor cyclist wasn’t injured too! (She was standing, so I assume that she was at least physically okay, leaving aside the trauma she must have experienced.)

WOMAN, WHAT IN HELL WERE YOU THINKING? What a good idea, I think I’ll take an excitable, black dog onto a path that I’m not supposed to be on, unleashed, where there are fast, silent metal objects zipping back and forth to chase, more than usual due to the transit strike, at ten at night where there are no lights!

You walking, leaking Fleet enema of a person, I hope the veterinarian soaks you for every cent you own. You don’t deserve to have pets any more sentient or mobile than a geranium.

(This is the conjunction of two things that fucking piss me off: people walking on bike paths, alluded to previously, and people not leashing their goddamn dogs. Two months ago I was at a bus stop when these two cretins walked their large, half-savage dog up to the depanneur and fucking left it sitting there while they went in to buy their poisons of choice. Naturally, when it encountered an irresistible stimulation such as, oh, cars and pedestrians, it flipped out, started snapping at passersby, and darted out into traffic, nearly getting itself creamed. I screamed at them to call their dog, and the woman came out of the store, called the dog over, and then left it there again!! And then January before last, this guy left his huge attack dogs outside the dep, leashed but not properly tied, and one of them saw me, leapt out, and attacked me while I was on crutches and in a cast. When I’m Queen, this behaviour will be grounds for immediate, avulsive neutering – of the owners.)

2

/Goes and looks up “avulsive”.

:eek:

/Agrees.

Bad pet owners suck.

3

'm really not trying to be a prick… Are folks around there using the path on wheels allowed to just zoooom invisibly, without lights? And are pedestrians really not supposed to use those paths? Do they have their own paths nearby?

Sounds like trouble.

4

If it’s like Calgary there are several types of paths.

Sidewalks - Pedestrians only
Multi-use paths - Pedestrians, people on non-motorized wheels
Bike paths - solely for bicycle use

The bicycle ones are parallel to pedestrian paths in certain areas of town.

It’s also a fine if you are riding after dark without appropriate lights on the bicycle/reflective gear etc.

But I’d have a hard time dodging a dog that came out of (seemingly) nowhere along a dark path at dusk/night.

5

I don’t remember whether the cyclist had lights or not, but those wouldn’t have done the dog much good in choosing whether or not to dart out in front of the cyclist, nor would it have done the cyclist much good in avoiding the dog when it scampered out of the shadows onto the path.

And it’s a two-lane bike path. There isn’t a pedestrian walkway in the immediate vicinity, but there’s a big old swath of city park grass, so there’s no need to bring a dog into swerving distance of a bike. And never any need to walk the damn thing without a leash.

6

True.

7

Can we generalize this rant? Twice in the last few months I’ve been bicycling on quiet, residential city streets, exactly where I’m supposed to be doing exactly what I’m supposed to do, when a barking nightmare comes out of nowhere and lunges at me. Both times the pet owners were angry and defensive because little Fluffy nearly got hurt, and after all, they had only had him in their own (unfenced) front yard. Then they mocked me for being afraid of their harmless little pet.

Look, all I see is a barking blur. How do I know it’s a friendly golden retriever and not a rabid wolf? Also, why are you blaming me if your dog takes off running into traffic at night? How is it my fault that you’re too lazy to attach a lead to your dog that you’re too lazy to take for a walk? I’m glad Fluffy is uninjured. I’d like to point out that the public roads are also used by cars, trucks, and hungry coyotes. I wish no harm on your dog, but it’s hard to see how you can avoid disaster with that kind of stupidity.

8

If she had been walking the dog on a leash it probably would have been one of those invisible extending ones, and she’d have been on one side of the path and the dog on the other, so some poor cyclist could have gotten clotheslined.

9

Did God himself damn the dog directly or by some kind of remote smiting?

10

Do wolves bark? Growl, howl, but do they bark?

But to the OP: Dogs should be fenced or leashed. We pet owners have responsibilities.

11

Well, we don’t actually have wolves (barking or otherwise) on the streets of San Diego, but try telling that to my adrenaline glands.

12

Surely there are off-leash areas in the US - god forbid that dogs can never run free…and although the dog owner in the OP was in the wrong, surely if the bike had had a light, the owner would have been able to see the bike coming and pulled/called the dog out of the way.

13

I thought the exact same thing.

And isn’t it dangerous for anyone except walkers to be on an unlit bike path at night? You could have just as easily run into another biker.

And I’m assuming Montreal has different rules because here in Cincinnati bike paths are all-inclusive hike/bike/skate friendly and dogs are commonplace.

Poor pooch.

14

I promise I will not walk my dog without a leash at ten at night on the bike path. Particularly in Montreal. I would rather you don’t pummel me with your tiny fists. :smiley:

15

Yeah, I suppose you’re right – she obviously doesn’t have the sense God gave a cauliflower to begin with, so she probably would have been doing something idiotic like that, even if she had gotten it together to put her dog on a leash. At least there the cyclists would have been able to take some postural cues from her. But still, I guess I should amend my rant to say “if you don’t have the sense God gave a cauliflower, don’t use the public bike paths.”

Unlit bike paths are dangerous, which is why I just sent a letter to the mayor, borough mayor, and head of the city transportation commission asking them to light the damn things. However, cyclists are 1) large, so I can usually see them; 2) required to carry lights, which dogs are not; 3) sentient, and usually watching for bikes; and 4) not in the habit of darting erratically back and forth across the bike path.

16

I wait until 10:15.

17

I’m still unclear. Is this path supposed to be reserved exclusively for bikers? Or are walkers permitted?

18

matt said upthread:

That conveys to me that the bike path in question is no place for the pitter-patter of little feet, whether canine or human. It appears that foot passengers are required either to stay on the grassy swath nearby or seek a pedestrian walkway elsewhere.

19

I can shorten this rant a bit: “Don’t walk your goddamn dog without a leash”.

Oh, and to answer a question:

Wolves almost never bark. Feral dogs certainly do.

20

I gave up on the bike path when I lived on the Burnaby/Vancouver border. Kingsway, the main thoroughfare, was safer. Seriously.

As it happens, the bike path follows the Skytrain line all the way from Vancouver into New Westminster. It’s clearly marked and paved and for most of it’s length it has a gravel pedestrian path within a few feet to the side. Nevertheless, it’s almost always covered in people. People who find it nescassary to walk four abreast.

Sneaking up behind 'em and blasting a horn did have a certian appeal though…