To me, my rescue dog Judy is perfect. She’s like a spaniel-sized, four-legged Sabrina Carpenter, all big eyes and floppy blonde hair. To other Londoners, she’s not so perfect. I was prepared for that (not everybody can have good taste, I get it) but open antagonism? Really?
Let me explain. There’s something of a turf war breaking out on the mean streets of London over Judy and her kind. In Tower Hamlets, where I live, I’ve been literally yelled at simply for walking next to people on the pavement. I’ve been chased out of actual dog parks by neighbours claiming they weren’t for dogs. Nor is it unusual for full-on arguments to break out on Nextdoor over dogs in the area.
The war has escalated and the law is getting involved. I had to ask myself, is London, an open and free city where half the homes have dogs, somehow becoming anti-dog? Have the culture wars come to canines?
Tower Hamlets council, citing the increase in the number of “out-of-control” dogs, is looking to introduce the most sweeping ban on off-lead walking in the country, so much so that the Dogs Trust, Kennel Club and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home are all trying to talk them out of it. “To have all dogs on leads in all parks and green open spaces — it’s the first time nationally they’ve seen any council try to push it through,” says Bernadette Moriarty, the co-founder of East London Dog Community, a local group rallying support against the ban.
I do understand why other people might be wary of dogs. After last year’s non-stop press coverage of XL bullies and the rise in dog attacks, who can blame them?
On a personal level, I get it. My own dog was attacked by a stranger’s dog, and I had to go to A&E for a tetanus shot after I was hurt trying to separate them. But my experience is actually an outlier.
More than 80 per cent of dog bites occur at home from an animal known to the victim. “Often this is the family pet and bites happen during stroking, restraining or just play,” writes Professor Carri Westgarth and Dr John Tulloch from the University of Liverpool’s School of Veterinary Science. Putting leads on dogs in public won’t do much to help that.
My own dog was attacked by a stranger’s dog
And another note for non-dog owners: walking a dog off lead simply means letting them off their leash so they can go around their business freely, whether that’s sniffing a tree, saying hello to another dog or playing fetch. Normal dog behaviour, in other words — except the local council wants none of it and they’re being cheered on by some people who really hate dogs.
The plans may force dogs to be on a lead in all public spaces, including parks and open spaces such as Victoria Park and Mile End Park. If you’re caught on the wrong side of the law, you would be liable for a £100 fixed penalty notice and a maximum fine of £1,000. And they’re serious about enforcing it too — according to one FOI request, the council hopes to hire 64 support officers by April 2025.
There’s some things that only dog owners know
You may ask yourself, what’s the big deal about putting a leash on a dog when they’re outside? But there’s some things that only dog owners know, most of which I admit I had no idea about untill I adopted one. Firstly, dogs need daily exercise and it takes a lot more on-lead walking to tire out a four-legged friend.
Not doing this leads to unhappy, unfulfilled, even aggressive, dogs. “My border terrier requires a good two hours walking [on lead], but I can get away with throwing a ball in a park for an hour,” Moriarty explains.
“If you’re not able to exercise your dog properly, you’ll have behavioural issues — more instances of dogs barking and other problems.”
Then there’s how dogs interact with each other. Some dogs on lead get scared or anxious if another dog approaches them, which makes sense — they can’t exactly flee the scene if the other dog gets shirty. Want to minimise the chances of frightened or pent-up dogs lashing out at each other or at humans? Making sure they get some off-lead time to socialise and play, restraint-free, is key.
Of course, this comes with caveats. Good owners use parks responsibly, stop their dogs from trampling people’s gardens (and picnics), and train their hounds to obey commands and have excellent recall. They also, obviously, make sure that their dog isn’t aggressive towards humans or animals. If you can’t guarantee that, you shouldn’t have your dog off-lead.
Some Londoners are just not dog people
I fully accept that some Londoners are just not dog people, in the same way I once walked across the road when I saw a man with a rabid-looking ferret approach me on the pavement.
If someone asked me to put Judy on a lead or direct her away from them, I would happily comply. Enforcing a total “dogs on lead” order across the entire borough doesn’t just feel like an illiberal overstretch on the council’s part. It’s a total misunderstanding — although one based on admittedly justifiable fears of XL bullies — of how dogs behave and act around each other.
It also feels like depressing evidence that Tower Hamlets doesn’t believe that its residents are responsible or neighbourly enough to work out these problems on their own — and given the heated arguments about the issue on Nextdoor, perhaps we aren’t.
In the war between dog owners and non dog-owners, it seems we are turning down a bleak path indeed.
