For over a month, a man has been seen frequenting the Riverside Park area with his two German shepherd dogs ... and things have turned aggressive.
Lorenz Calcagno, president of the Guelph Off-Road Bicycling Association (GORBA) was first made aware of the aggressive dogs and their owner in May. He received emails from GORBA members citing their concerns.
One email indicated the person had put their bicycle in between their body and the dog to act as a shield while they were being lunged at.
Another person described the situation to Calcagno this way about the dog owner; “he's the assailant, the dogs are the weapons. If he had been standing in the park with two knives in his hands, he would have been treated much differently.”
Tom Lokody was cycling on the Royal Recreation Trail and when he saw the man struggling to handle his dogs, so he got off his bike to walk it. The man swore at him after Lokody asked if he was okay. “I'm trying to help this guy and he's completely threatening me,” said Lokody.
His young son rides with GORBA and witnessed the dogs going ballistic towards the young riders he was with.
Lokody reached out to bylaw and the city about it because “there’s a true danger here.”
Calcagno has been to Riverside Park several times in the past month and each time he was there he saw the man with his dogs.
He took a video of an interaction with the man and city bylaw officials at the park. In the video the dogs are on leashes and have muzzles over their mouths. They barked and tried to lunge at a small dog who was walking on a leash.
Officers asked the owner of the German shepherds to go back to his vehicle. As he goes to leave he tells the officer he was going to go near the playground. “No. You’re not going near the playground. We don’t want to find you near the playground. These dogs are not in control right now,” said a bylaw officer.
The man raised his voice to say his dogs were under control.
“Sir, we’ve been getting a lot of complaints about you on the trails,” said the officer.
“I don’t care what kind of complaints have been made,” said the dog owner.
“Your dogs are very aggressive,” said the officer. The dogs continued to bark and pull on their leashes.
A group of people walked by the dogs while keeping distance. The owner told the officer he can’t get people away from his dogs. The officer points out he is in a public place and the man said he has a right to use the park.
The officer said people are afraid of the dogs. “I don’t care if people are afraid of my dogs. They should stay away from my dogs,” said the owner.
Calcagno contacted city bylaw officials who told him a no trespass order had been issued about a week ago to the man. He also called the police.
GuelphToday reached out to the City of Guelph to confirm whether or not he had been served with a no trespass notice.
“In an instance where a dog owner is identified to be putting community members at risk or is not in compliance with Guelph’s animal control bylaw, our officers would work with both the Guelph Police Service and Guelph Humane Society, as appropriate, to address the concerns.” said Doug Godfrey, general manager of operations, in an email statement.
He confirmed complaints were received about aggressive dogs on trails recently but couldn’t get into details because of an ongoing investigation.
“To be honest, I think all of us were hoping that … the dogs would be dealt with sooner than later. Our greatest fear is all we’ve done is pushed this problem into someone else’s backyard,” said Calcagno.
Lokody said he’s satisfied with the no trespass order as long as it can be respected. “But at least there's like a legal measure now because now we can easily call the police and have that person charged,” he said.
He has started to feel better being back on the trails and hasn’t seen the man and his dogs since his last interaction with him.
GORBA and the Guelph Hiking Trail Club released information about the situation to its members. “The man has received municipal bans in Brant County and Hamilton as a result of his dogs injuring people and their pets,” said the hiking club trail in its social media post.
“So he was choosing to bring the dogs here because he couldn't, he's not allowed to have the dogs in public in those jurisdictions,” said Calcagno.
Guelph Hiking Trail Club president, Colin McCusker said he is proud the community has banded together and raised concerns about the situation.
“I think anything that contributes to compromising the safety of people is always an issue. And it's worth reporting on,” he said.
“It sounds like the authorities have taken action to protect the public. I think there's definitely probably less reason to be worried about worst case scenario,” said McCusker. This situation aside he thinks people should be aware of their surroundings in outdoor public spaces no matter what.
The post suggested if people witnessed or were involved with an incident with the dogs they may consider contacting police. People commented on the post with their experiences.
