Edmonton's 'most dangerous' off-leash dog park to be fenced

The city will be putting a fence around Lauderdale dog park, an off-leash park that area dog owners describe as one of Edmonton'sbusiest and its most dangerous.

"It's great news," said Ken Zahara, chair of the Grand Trunk off-leash dog park committee, a group that has been working withthe city for three years to getimprovements to the park.

• Fence proposed for north-Edmonton off-leash park has no bite, say dog owners

"All along our main issue is the safety of the dogs because there's been four or five that have been killed in recent years, and many more that have been injured," said Zahara on Wednesday.

Improvements to the Lauderdale off-leash area at 113A Street and 127th Avenue in north Edmonton will include a fully fenced off-leash area, a separate fenced area for small dogs, several new trees and shrubs, a new kioskand signs.

There are three busy roadsaround the off-leash park. An initial proposal by the city to add shrubs, along with some fencing,as a barrier,just wasn't good enough, said Zahara, whose group pushed to have the area fully-fenced.

"It's going to bring a lot more people into the area," he said. "It's one of the busiest dog parks in the city now, but a lot of people won't go there because they view it as too dangerous for their animals."

It isn't always easy for dog owners to keep their animals in check there, said Zahara.

"If a rabbit comes by and they chase the rabbit, or the birds, or decide to chase the other dogs, [they] end up out on the street," he said.

The Lauderdale off-leash area is a pilot projectof the city's Dogs in Open Spaces Strategy, said Amanda Brown, an off-leash coordinatorwith the City of Edmonton.

The time, energyand city financial resources that went into developing the plan for Lauderdale will be reviewed with an eye to doing more of this kind of consultation on other off-leash areas in the city, saidBrown.

Calgary has five fully fenced off-leash areas for dogs.This park will be Edmonton's first, said Zahara.

Construction on the project will begin in September. Itis expected to cost $305,000and take only a few weeks to complete, said Brown.