Dogs Walking Off-Leash Do So At Their Own Risk

By Marcus Braid on March 4, 2015 in News

Waverley Mayor Sally Betts has rejected the request for extra fencing on Hastings Parade in North Bondi, after a dog leapt over a wall on the street last month and fell to its death.

Dan Kershaw was walking his friend’s dog, Scotch, around North Bondi when disaster struck.

“He was off lead, and spare me the lectures, and as usual happy and inquisitive,” Mr Kershaw said. “In order to mix it up for him, I decided we would go up to Hastings Parade on our way home.

“He ran up to the waist high sandstone wall and jumped it. I got to the wall in time to see him falling, looking back at me horrified, and he smashed on the rocks.

“I tried to get to him as soon as possible but he was dead by the time I got down there, and so ended the life of a beautiful little guy who made hundreds of people a day smile.”

Mr Kershaw said he had never been down the end of the street where the accident occurred before.

“I’d never been down this end of the street before and had no idea there was a 50-metre drop over this low fence,” he said.

“When I got down there, there were flowers scattered, so obviously little Scotch wasn’t the first victim of this example of poor safety management.”

Mr Kershaw headed straight to Council to drum up support for extra fencing after the accident, but Waverley Mayor Sally Betts was less than sympathetic to his cause.

“I think there’s some personal responsibility that’s needed here,” Cr Betts said. “In Waverley, we cannot possibly build up walls so high that no dog could jump over them. It’s completely impractical.

“We do not live in a walled city, and so we cannot build walls everywhere.

“I doubt the dog could have jumped over the wall if it were on the leash. Everyone knows that dogs have got to be on their leash. Our rangers spend hours and hours asking locals to put their dogs on the leash.”