Some local residents complain Jean Sibelius Park goes to the dogs after 6 p.m. when off-leash hours begin.

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Tension over dogs unleashed Parents say dogs dominate Annex park Surprised at criticism, owners say Mar. 20, 2006. 04:48 AM GABE GONDA CITY HALL BUREAU Last Wednesday evening, a spirited 8-month-old chocolate Lab named Riley was mucking about in a little downtown park as her owner chatted with about a dozen other dog people. Every weeknight, starting at six, locals gather to unleash their dogs in Jean Sibelius Park, which sits a few blocks west of Spadina and north of Bloor in the heart of the Annex. Riley's owner, a beefy 26-year-old court clerk named Kyle Bischan, was reflecting on the rift between dog owners and parents in the neighbourhood when Riley spied a dropped baseball. "Parents feel like dogs are monopolizing the park," Bischan explained. Behind his back, Riley took off for the ball, grabbing it in her mouth as two young men playing catch threw up their hands. "Riley!" Bischan yelled. In Sibelius — and other parks across the city — owners like Bischan are just waking up to the resentment of their neighbours, who feel off-leash rules have allowed dogs to dominate scarce public space at the expense of children and dogless families. This Annex cold war turned hot a few weeks ago at a public meeting about the future of the park, a tiny plot of green space in the centre of a well-heeled neighbourhood. A developer recently donated $350,000 to improve Sibelius Park, part of its deal with the city for a proposed condo on nearby Spadina Ave. When the well-organized local residents' association called a public meeting to get input on what to do with the money, some parents came instead to air long-standing grievances about dogs in the park. "One father said it's crazy that we're equating dogs with children — children come before dogs, they're not equal," said Ginny Brett, whose 8-year-old son Jake was harassed by a dog in Sibelius last fall. All this comes as the city is attempting to formalize a policy on unleashing dogs in its 1,400 parks, an attempt to meet the needs of a growing dog population. Toronto is considering a model that will ask local groups to work out off-leash rules in conjunction with the city, a move parents like Brett say is an abdication of leadership and will lead to bitter neighbourhood fights. As it stands, the city has 33 parks with off-leash hours. In Sibelius, it's 7 to 9 a.m. weekday mornings and 6 to 10:30 in the evening; on weekends, 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 6 to 10:30 at night. Parents complain those hours aren't always honoured and when they are, with packs of dogs as large as 20 running free, it's hard for anyone else to enjoy the park. The city prohibits off-leash runs in smaller parks, but little Sibelius has been an exception since 1998 when then-councillor John Adams pushed through a special rule at city council. In intervening years, parental bitterness has festered as the dog population shot up in a city being transformed by the condo boom. While there has never been a canine census in Toronto, the city estimates there are between 250,000 and 500,000 dogs here and everyone agrees the number is growing along with the population of singles and childless families. The official in charge of drafting the new off-leash policy, which will be debated at city council in May, says the dog population has exploded over the last five years. "There's been an enormous increase," says Sandy Straw. Parents like Brett, who has formed a group called "Share the Square," wants the dog run in Sibelius enclosed with a fence, just as the park's small playground is. Brett says another problem is enforcement. While off-leash hours are clearly posted, not all owners respect them. Brett thinks the city should put more muscle into making owners follow the rules, which is difficult with an enforcement staff of just 12. But Toronto's philosophy seems to be to shift responsibility to local hands. "The problem is, the city hasn't taken a stand," she said. Brett, a former schoolteacher, gave up her job working with special needs children around the time she and husband Matthew, an economics professor at the University of Toronto, had their son Jake. The couple and their two children — daughter Ella is 6 — live on Howland Ave., a few blocks from Sibelius. Brett's frustration came to a head in September, when Jake and a friend set off to play soccer in the park one Sunday morning. She had given the boys a 15-minute lead. When Brett got to the park, though, she found Jake and his friend huddled in the playground enclosure, which is meant for toddlers. A dog had taken their soccer ball. "Jake said, `We had to give the dog a biscuit to get the ball and then he took it again.'" Brett then told the story of a local mother whose 4-year-old son was knocked down by a dog while walking through the park with a stick in his hand. When accounts like these came out at the public meeting this month, dog owners were surprised. "I didn't know there was any tension until I went to that meeting," says Bischan. There may be room for compromise at Sibelius. Many of the dog owners gathered in the park Wednesday night favoured the idea of an enclosed dog run. A local dog walker named Gillian Morton planned to hold a meeting on the weekend to sound out their ideas. Morton didn't want to be interviewed at length for this story because the situation is so tense. "I don't want to negotiate through the media," she said Wednesday morning, while being dragged up Brunswick Ave. by six leashed charges. A core issue, though, is the cultural divide between dog owners who have no children and families with no dogs. The childless Bischan and other owners talked about that tension the other night, watching over their dogs on the muddy western field of Sibelius. Not all were sympathetic to people like the Bretts. "I wouldn't want to send my 8-year-old to the park alone," said Lee Waxberg, who has no children. A supply teacher named Katie Barron, meanwhile, thinks dog-haters are using their kids as pawns. "I feel like kids are their best angle to get dogs out," she said. Kelly Brown, a Ph.D. student in bioethics at York University, takes a softer line. Brown owns a 9-month-old pug named Otis and likes the idea of an enclosure. "It would protect the dogs from traffic," she said. But Brown wishes her neighbours could empathize more with owners like her. "Dogs are like children to people," she said.

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