General News
16 November, 2023
“Be aware and respect the area”
“We’d like to see it continue”: Dog walker Jennifer Rabach, and her companion Bea, Camperdown P and A Society member Rebecca Lines-Kelly and president Cheryl McMahon are calling for dog owners to be considerate of others using the Showgrounds...
“We’d like to see it continue”: Dog walker Jennifer Rabach, and her companion Bea, Camperdown P and A Society member Rebecca Lines-Kelly and president Cheryl McMahon are calling for dog owners to be considerate of others using the Showgrounds.
CAMPERDOWN Pastoral and Agricultural Society (P and A Society) has begun a two-month trial of special rules for dog owners after a number of incidents of uncontrolled dogs and dog faeces were left on the Showgrounds.
The Camperdown Showgrounds are a favoured place for dog walkers which allows owners to walk their pets off-leash, but this freedom could be limited if the situation does not improve.
The trial, which began last Friday, will ask owners to follow two simple rules that have been noted in a letter sent to residents:
• Dog owners are required to have full control, particularly around buildings; and
• Dog owners must collect dog faeces and dispose in the bins available.
The trial will finish on January 10, 2024 and will determine whether the P and A Society will be forced to close the showgrounds to the public.
Society president Cheryl McMahon said the 8.4ha property is owned and maintained by the P and A Society itself, with all work done by volunteers.
“Our maintenance crew are complaining regularly that there is too much dog facees on the oval and around the buildings,” she said.
“That’s a group of six people that mow, and it takes them eight hours to mow the grounds. It’s quite a big job, and they are all volunteers; they don’t get paid.
“One of the workers said you kneel down to do something, and you realise that you knelt in dog faeces, and he said it’s not very pleasant.
“I know the maintenance crew are sick of the amount of dog faeces, and even when it’s dry and you mow it, it just turns into powder and wafts up into your face. It’s not very pleasant at all.”
Ms McMahon said dogs are also encouraging each other to be around buildings through instinctual behavior, which poses a risk to those using the buildings such as the Leura pavilion, for events.
“Just around the buildings and that; if the dogs congregate around there they lay their scent down because they’re pack animals,” she said.
“Then the next dog comes around, smells that scent, and marks its territory over the top of the other dog, so it’s just a behavior that’s reinforced in them when they come here regularly.
“There’s a water point at the cattle wash, and there’s also a tank over at the stables with a dish.
“They don’t really need to water their dogs at the Leura pavilion.”
Dog walker Jennifer Rabach organised a Facebook group called Camperdown Dog Walkers Group to communicate with dog owners who use the site, which has allowed walkers to be aware of events running at the grounds.
She said she loves the open space of the showgrounds for walking her dog Bea.
“It’s just lovely to be able to come and let your dog off lead and walk freely, and just be with your dog. That’s what I like about it,” Ms Rabach said.
“I take off and she follows me along, and I think that’s what having a dog is all about. It’s just being able to be with your dog.
“She’s able to follow scents and explore and do all those doggy things that dogs like to do.
“It’s good to have some exercise; as an older person, it’s lovely to come up here and have some exercise.
“There’s no cars around or anything like that, and you can pace yourself as you walk around.”
Ms Rabach said it was a “real privilege” to have the Showgrounds available as a dog-walking site.
“It’s lovely to meet other people; dog people are a certain breed of people, and it’s just lovely,” she said.
“We all say hello to each other. It’s a real community sort of feeling, and it’s thanks to the generosity of the people that own the showgrounds that we’re able to do that.
“Meeting the dog people, and that socialisation, is lovely.
“You get to meet the dogs; the dogs all talk to each other. The people as well, you get to know your neighbours.”
Ms Rabach said losing the showgrounds as an off-lead dog-walking space would force her to travel to Warrnambool.
“The dog-walking places around here are limited where you can have your dog off-lead,” she said.
“I can’t think of anywhere else where you can have your dog off-lead.
“I think it would be pretty devastating (to lose the showgrounds), for me personally and for the community, because we’d lose that opportunity to mix socially.”
While taking the hard stance, Ms McMahon said she wants to keep allowing people to walk their dogs at the showgrounds.
“Lots of people have walked dogs here for a lot of years, and we’d like to see it continue,” she said.
“People just need to be aware and respect the area so that everybody can use it without fear of being jumped on by a dog.”