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this one is for jay ..
A crime in progress: Molly is way out of bounds by being actually inside this Yorkville eatery, but the server gave her water anyway. If you’re a dog, even being on an Ontario restaurant patio is against the law.
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Ontario's pooch-free patios
Even patios are out for dogs under Ontario's health protection law. Except experts say dogs aren't a health hazard. Besides, birds are also outlawed, but nobody seems to have told the pigeons
Jul. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM
JUDY GERSTEL
LIFE WRITER
Among the ladies at lunch in Yorkville on a sweltering summer day, sipping ice water and taking in the passing parade, is Molly, perfectly groomed, sporting a great haircut and attracting admiring glances.
Not much bigger than the pigeons who frequent restaurant and café patios all over town, the tiny Yorkshire terrier is nevertheless flouting the law of the land, although it's the restaurant that will incur the penalty.
Molly the scofflaw will go free — as free as her leash allows.
The law violated by the Yorkie and the Yorkville eatery is Section 59 of Regulation 562 of the Ontario Health Protection and Promotion Act:
"Every operator of a food premise shall ensure that... every room where food is... served...is kept free from... live birds and animals."
It's the latter, in the form of schnoodles, shih tzus and mutts (with an exemption for working dogs) and not the former, in the form of pigeons, seagulls and sparrows, that concerns city health inspectors charged with enforcing the Ontario law — even though, says a University of Guelph scientist, birds pose more of a health risk.
"Birds, flies eating feces before landing on food, I'd be far more concerned about them transmitting infections," Sandra Lefebvre says.
A veterinarian and researcher of diseases shared between pets and people, she confesses to allowing her cat to walk on the dining room table at home while she eats.
As for prohibiting dogs on restaurants patios, she says, "There are no health reasons that I know of."
But a Toronto food safety manager defends the decision to go after dogs.
"We certainly can't control pigeons and seagulls," says Gerry Lawrence, who oversees a team of 12 inspectors. "God's creatures could end up anywhere. It's the creatures we have control over we would not permit to be present."
Among these forbidden creatures: a canine on the patio of Gabby's at 2572 Yonge St. in mid-May.
Gabby's at this location is among a dozen Toronto restaurants listed by dogfriendly.com as welcoming dogs to their outdoor eating area. Several, including Gabby's, have changed their policy because of a crackdown by regulators.
Other restaurants around the city, including three in Yorkville that allow dogs on their patios, either ignore the law or are unaware that it applies to outdoor areas.
Almost all restaurants will permit dogs to remain on the other side of a railing or wrought iron fence that defines the eating area, even though the dogs are still adjacent to the tables.
"I totally allowed dogs on the patio," explains Gabby's manager Steve Atherley, "but a health inspector came by and said every patio has to be dog-free if you serve food."
He says a woman from the neighbourhood complained and reported the restaurant.
Dogs are no longer welcome at the restaurant's outdoor area, which is adjacent to a store selling pet supplies. Before, Atherley says, people would stop by with pets ranging from rottweilers to chihuahuas.
"We never had a problem with any of the dogs."
Food safety manager Lawrence suggests the legislation, which specifically mentions birds but not dogs, might have originated many years ago because of a concern about keeping live poultry on the premises that would be butchered and served.
`You're more likely to get an infection from the person sitting next to you than from a dog sitting next to you on a patio'
Scott Weese, veterinary college professor
Also, restaurant patios were uncommon in Ontario before the 1980s, when the current Health Protection and Promotion Act replaced century-old legislation.
In fact, the dog prohibition is really about cultural and individual preferences even though it is linked — speciously, say experts — to public health or food safety issues, which are pretty much non-existent.
"It's highly likely that the province is citing health reasons in order to meet preference-based concerns," acknowledges Toronto city councillor Shelley Carroll, who represents Don Valley East and has a golden retriever named Maxx and emphasizes that pet owners have to be responsible and obey the law.
Still, she adds, "If there were health concerns, there would be a lot of sick people in France."
There, and in other European countries, it's not unusual to see dogs and cats not only on patios but in restaurant dining rooms.
However, says Carroll, "There are people who are afraid of dogs and people who would never own a dog and think of them as not being clean, who say, `I'm not sharing this patio with a dog.'"
"A lot of it is cultural," acknowledges Scott Weese, associate professor of clinical studies at the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph, whose dog Meg sits beside the table at home. "The potential (for disease) is very minimal. And there's no greater risk on a restaurant patio than having a dog anywhere else."
The risk, he says, which is always present with a dog, comes from "touching the dog and getting bacterium on the hand and putting it in the mouth. But it's easily preventable by not touching the dog or washing your hands before you eat."
It all comes down to common sense and good hygiene, wherever you are, scientists suggest.
As Weese puts it: "You're more likely to get an infection from the person sitting next to you than from a dog sitting next to you on a patio.
"It's so widely done in Europe, and we're unaware of any outbreaks (of disease) in Europe linked to pets on patios."
Nor does the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta consider dogs to be a health risk at outdoor restaurants.
"Although dogs can pass some germs to people and may have fleas or ticks, those are risks you have from being around a dog anywhere," spokesperson Christine Pearson says.
"Being in a restaurant would not necessarily pose any additional risk."
Pearson, who owns a golden retriever puppy named Milo, adds: "We do recommend that people thoroughly wash hands with soap and water after having contact with dogs."
"It's not about health," concurs Len Kain, vice-president of dog friendly.com. "It's about some percentage of the population feeling dogs shouldn't be there.
"But just because I don't like loud music, they don't ban it — even though there's a bigger risk to my health, because you can go deaf from loud music."
Dog owner Israel Morales, a former nurse who lives near the restaurants and patios around St. Lawrence Market, says his shih tzu Angel is family and he doesn't like to leave her alone for long.
"That's why I don't go to restaurants," he says.
Angel, he notes, is bathed several times a week, has her teeth brushed and tongue scrubbed regularly and behaves in accordance with her name.
She would fit right into the patio scene, he says. "I've seen kids behave badly at restaurants, worse than dogs."
Well-behaved dogs and responsible owners should be allowed to sit on patios together, says Fran Berkoff, an Annex resident who often walks into Yorkville with Molly the Yorkie.
"It's nice in summer to take her for a walk and stop for something to eat and drink," she says. "It doesn't hurt anybody. She doesn't bother anybody. She lies quietly at my feet."
Still, Berkoff says she wouldn't necessarily want to adopt the European habit of carrying Yorkies into upscale restaurants.
"If I were going out for an evening of fine dining, I wouldn't want to take the dog," she says, "but that's a different experience than patio dining."
More North American urban centres are moving in the direction of the the cosmopolitan European attitude to dogs, allowing them to accompany owners dining al fresco.
Austin, Texas, recently made it a point to permit leashed dogs at outdoor restaurant areas. Other cities in the U.S., including Santa Barbara in California, simply don't enforce outdated state prohibitions.
In Florida, it's now up to local governments to decide whether restaurant owners should have the option to open their patios to diners with dogs. The regulation will be reviewed after three years.
Ontario legislator Michael Prue, who once served on the Toronto Board of Health, is aware of the pilot program in Florida and agrees that dogs on patios is not really a public health concern.
"It's probably an esthetics reason...," says the MPP for Beaches-East York, a New Democrat who once owned a German shepherd named Artemis.
The prohibition, he says, "was not, as I recall, for anything to do with transmission of disease directly from animal to person."
The problem is that "people don't want to eat lunch if a dog starts doing its business right there. I think that's more or less what it's about."
Prue says he's never had anyone suggest to him, as an MPP, that the law should be changed to allow individual restaurant owners to decide whether to allow dogs to join patrons on patios.
But "if there is a mood for it," he says, it might be a good idea to follow Florida's lead.
"If the law is to be changed or challenged, there would have to be public input," he says. "It would need study. If people in the province want it, I will ask for public hearings."
City councillor Carroll agrees that permitting cities to implement policies regarding dogs on patios, with allowances for the preferences of different neighbourhoods, would be good for Toronto.
Finally, even the experts who find no problem with dogs on patios warn against equal treatment for every pet. Says Guelph scientist Weese, "A reptile on a patio is something I would consider inappropriate."
But of course he wasn't referring to singles bars.
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MPP Michael Prue (Beaches-East York) can be contacted at mprue [email protected] or at 416-690-1032.
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Toronto city councillor Shelley Carroll (Don Valley East) can be reached at councillor_carroll@
toronto.ca or at 416-392-4038.
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source:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...72154&t=TS_Home
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