The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

- 3 . - 7 7 - . v ee xX > Council rejects call for bylaw to - 194508 restrict spraying Public education is the best formal by-law that would Your Voice in Scugoyg Vol. 5, No. 38 Tuesday, April 30, 1996 Call (905) 985-6397 CIRC. 13,500 way to convince people to stop putting chemical sprays on their lawns. That was essentially the message from wnship councillors Monday -evening in turning down a request from the Scugog Green Team for a a - ry » Nancy Bongard with her four dogs Willow, Scanner, Sprint and Demi. Mrs. Bongard and her husband Reid are organizing a 4 ¥ Therapy Dog testing day for Scugog residents and their canines. Dogs that pass the test will spend time In the nursing home and hospital and will have the designation Canine Good Citizen after their names. For detalls, see article below. Couple to start Scugog chapter of Therapy Dogs for visiting elderly For past year or so, Reid and Nancy Bongard have been paying a weekly visit to the Community Nursing Home with their * Retrievers Sprint and Scanner. They visit residents in their rooms and in the lounge and . activify areas at the nursing home where the elderly get a chance to pet the dogs, talk to them. The results are amazing. Tests have proven that contact with dogs such as these improve the mental and physical well Being of the elderly, lower blood pressures and give them an overall lift. While just a few years ago, dogs were forbidden in nursing homes, today, therapy dogs, as they are called, are widespread from one end of the country to the other. Reid and Nancy are in the process of forming a Scugog are planning a testing day in Port Perry for mid-June. "The only requirement (to be a therapy dog) is that it must be very adaptable, well behaved with strangers and walk nicely on a leash without pullinggor tugging in different direction," Nancy explained in a regent interview with the Citizen. Dogs can be any breed and size and they need not have any formal obedience training, she said. In fact, small dogs are especially popular because they can be held or sit in a person's lap. "The most important thing is that dogs are friendly and have a good temperment," she stressed. To become a 8t. John Ambulance certified Canine Good Citizen, dogs are tested for about an hour which invol hi some on crutches or in. wheel chairs. The dogs who successfully complete the test receive a Canine Good Citizen certificate ~ and can officially use the letters CGC after their names. They also get a special therapy dog collar tag and their owners receive a white sweat shirt from the St. John Society. And St. John provides liability insurance for the dogs when they are visiting the elderly at a nursing home or hospital. At present, Reid and Nancy, along with one other person, are the only people in Scugog visiting the elderly with their dogs. They hope to add to the list. "The resfdents really look forward to the weekly visits," explained Nancy. "They are very di inted if we miss a visit for on the Jeash, accepting strangers, e to crowds of people-- S0mé reason. And it's a two-way street: Dog owners get a lot of satisfaction in seeing the relationships build between their pets and the elderly. 5 "This gives us the chance to share the enjoyment we have in our dogs with other people," said Reid. Nancéy and Reid have been involved with the training and breeding of dogs for many years. They keep four now (three? Retrievers and a Yellow Lab) at their Scugog Township home. They are planning the testing , day for mid-June at a community hall in the Township and hope to see as many dog owhers as possible. For info tion, give severely restrict the use of sprays on. lawns in the municipality. ' They cited problems with enforcement as the key reason for not passing such a by-law for the Township. SY However, all members o council praised the public relations works done by the Green "Team to raise awareness about the health problems that can come with chemical spraying. ' *And Karen Puckrin, chairman of the Township Parks Committee assured the meeting that parks staff "only very rarely do parks staff use sprays on public property. +~Perhaps it is time to stop it completely." "~ Green Team spokespersons Jay Thiebert, Lisa 'Lelliott and Erin Fuller, accompanied by a large delégation of supporters, told council that spraying lawns for cosmetic reasons pose serious health problems for humans and animals (pets) and sprays have been linked to several forms of cancer, birth defects and damage to the immune system. Mr. Thiebert said in 1993, 1.3 million kg. of spray was afplied to lawns, parks, and golf courses in Ontario, and some mbunicipalitiés have already passed by-laws to severely curtail or ban their use completely. : Specifically, the Green Team asked for a by-law in Scugog that would do the following: ** forbid spraying if wind is above 10 km/hr. and temperature above 23 degrees C. * ** make it mandatory for anyone spraying to post warning signs for 72 hours and warn ngighbours 24 hours in advance. quire a $10 municipal t to spray lawns and ban spraying completely from June 15 to Sept. 30. **issue fines of up to $3,000 (for répeat offenders) for breaking the by-law. Following the hour long meeting, Green members said they were not disappointed council declined to pass a by-law. They are encouraged by the moral support they are getting from councillors and the fact a council committee will continue to study the issue. The Greert Team went door to door in Greenbank last year handing out leaflets explaining the negative effects hemical on lawns. them a call at 986-4300. There is a $10 fee to have a dog tested. 'All sizes, colours, shapes and breeds make excellent therapy dogs. The most importgnt qualification. is a friendly temperment. A similar door-to door campaign is slated to start immediately in areas of Port Perry with the traditional lawn spraying month of May nanrly here. Team *