Higher fences should be a priority

To the editor:

In answer to your question in the Examiner of June 4: Yes! Westmount dog run fences are too low.

Some years ago, armed with the signatures of 100 dog owners, I tried to convince Westmount's administration of the fact. After three years correspondence, the fences remained the height Paul Creighton is complaining about today. As for the mayor's remark "We have had high hedges that are very dense, and they provide very good hiding places for people," I tried to persuade Westmount that the two clumps of pine beside the bike path were not only good hiding places for 'people' but, dangerous for children crossing and speeding cyclists. Due to decades of neglect, the branches had formed a wall, the lowest ones creeping horizontally along the ground. After another three years of correspondence plus letters to the Examiner and Independent, the coin finally dropped. The clumps were pruned in 2006.

Mr Creighton's lovable Pyrennian Mountain Dog is more intelligent than Westmount's council thinks. They might not be so amused had they known the reason for his "seeming boredom at the proceedings." Chaucer was most probably trying to tell his owner in the only way a dog knows, that he was wasting his time there because council is simply not interested in anything costing less than $1 million.

Stephen Chin

Sherbrooke Street