GUELPH, Ont. — For the residents of one Guelph neighbourhood, getting mail is proving difficult due to about six dogs wandering loose in the area and Canada Post deeming the area unsafe for its delivery workers.
There used to be door-to-door mail delivery on Algoma Drive and surrounding streets. Canada Post conducted a safety assessment in the area and temporarily suspended home delivery. Residents then had to pick up their mail at the Canada Post mail depot on Woodlawn Road until a community mailbox was installed.
This is due to the dogs escaping from their Algoma Drive homes, wandering the streets, barking, growling and showing their teeth, said neighbours in the area.
A man who answered the door of the home declined to speak to a GuelphToday reporter.
The Guelph Humane Society is investigating on behalf of the city.
Three neighbours in the area spoke to GuelphToday. All three asked to remain anonymous in this article due to their fears of the situation escalating.
One neighbour said the situation with the dogs getting out has been happening for close to two years.
There is an owner who lives at the house in question and a tenant who lives in the basement unit of the bungalow, said the neighbour. She isn’t sure whose dogs belong to who, she just knows the dogs are coming from the home on Algoma Drive.
She’s tried to fix the problem with the dogs getting out by contacting the Guelph Humane Society, Guelph Police Service, the City of Guelph, and her ward councillors. “I feel like we're in a revolving door, and we're not getting a way out,” she said.
She was notified about the temporary mail pick up at the depot on July 2 and then on July 25 she was notified about the temporary community mailbox installation. Her household drives to the community mailbox to get the mail.
“We just don't feel safe in our neighbourhood, and people around our neighbourhood don't feel safe because you never know when the dogs are going to be out running loose In everybody else's neighbourhood,” she said.
Another neighbour saw a postal worker being "chased" by dogs.
“So my friend and I were gardening one day, and we heard screaming and looked out and the postal worker had been chased up onto somebody's front porch across the street. And about, I think it was three or four of the dogs were running loose that day, and the postal worker was basically trapped on someone's porch,” she said.
This was the first time she saw something like this and she said about two days later she got a letter from Canada Post indicating the area would no longer be getting mail delivery.
“The health and safety of our employees and customers is our top priority. We can confirm there have been several incidents that have put our delivery agent at risk due to multiple loose dogs,” said Lisa Liu, media relations for Canada Post, in an email to GuelphToday.
“This was a serious cause of concern for our delivery agent and door-to-door delivery was temporarily suspended to customers residing on Algoma Drive. Customers were directed to pick up their mail and parcels at the Canada Post’s Guelph depot located at 250 Woodlawn Road West. We sent a letter to affected customers on July 25, 2024, notifying them that of the temporary conversion of their mail delivery to a community mailbox.
“There are 53 addresses temporarily affected,” said Phil Legault, media relations for Canada Post, in a follow-up email.
The neighbour whose household drives to pick up mail thinks there should be a city bylaw limiting how many dogs someone can have.
Instead of regulating a number of how many animals someone can have, the city regulates “the owner’s ability to take care of the dogs,” said Dustin Gronc, manager of corporate and community safety division operations for the City of Guelph, in an email.
Roughly eight years ago the city had a working group which looked at other municipalities that had set maximum limits of dogs that can be kept at a household. With public input and review the group decided instead of specifying a number on how many animals someone could have, “the maximum number of animals would be based on the individual’s ability to provide a standard of care, which may vary from one situation to another,” Gronc continued in an email.
When it comes to enforcement on this, the Guelph Humane Society staff use their animal care knowledge and in cases refer to the Provincial Animal Welfare Act and its officers to make a decision, said Gronc.
“If it is found that an individual does not have the capability to properly ensure adequate care is provided to an animal, it would likely result in a summons so that the matter could be brought before the court,” he said.
“With a current and ongoing investigation, I am unable to provide specifics about the issues on Algoma, however, I am able to provide our current process used for cases of dogs running at large:
- Dogs running at large should be reported to the Guelph Humane Society (519-824-3091 or [email protected])
- When a violation is brought to the Guelph Humane Society’s attention, staff would be dispatched to attend and investigate any violations that may be present or for any incidents that may have occurred. This typically includes evidence collection such as witness statements, pictures, videos or firsthand observations of the attending officer.
- Depending on the severity of the violation and evidence available, education, warnings and charges can be used to discourage future violations. This process utilizes an escalation process to match the severity of the offence meaning minor one-time occurrences would be treated appropriately (education/warnings) while a more serious, repeat issue would be dealt with accordingly (charges/court proceedings).
- When dealing with issues that affect the community, impacts are taken into consideration when determining the appropriate enforcement action and all violations observed are taken into account."
In the city’s animal control bylaw under the section “control of dogs,” it reads “no keeper shall permit the keeper’s dog, other than a dog that is a police work animal, to be leash-free, approach within one metre of any other person or any other person’s animal, be on the land of a person other than the keeper, except with the permission of such person and a variety of other situations with exceptions."
A third neighbour in the area said she witnessed a woman get surrounded by five of the dogs. She ran up to help her and she chased the dogs back to their home.
She has also seen the dogs surround a man and she did the same thing as in the other incident, ran up and tried to get the dogs away from him. The dogs started coming after her and she turned her back to them. Then one of the dogs started to lunge and attempted to bite three times, she said. The dogs stopped.
She is worried someone is going to get bit or people who encounter these dogs will end up having a lifelong fear of dogs.
She thinks the dogs keep getting out because they could be hopping over the fence on the property.
“We just need help,” she said.
— GuelphToday
