Dear Sir,

I am using this medium to sound an alarm because my attempts to get this problem taken care of have fallen on disinterested ears.

There is an unstable man who is bringing an off-leash dog into the city at night. He seems to hang out in the Albouy’s Point, Ferry Terminal area.

I walk my dog in the city every evening. She is a loving dog, who is the best buddy of a 102-year-old lady. They sleep together every night. However, she does not like other dogs. I first saw this man on October 1. I noticed him walking south on Par-la-Ville Road, just past The Royal Gazette building.

I was at the Church Street intersection with Par-la-Ville Road. I also noticed he had a dog. I crossed the street to avoid having the two dogs in such proximity. When he passed me on the other side of Par-la-Ville Road, there was no dog with him.

To my horror, the dog appeared a few minutes later all by itself, off leash. My dog was smelling around in a flower bed, so I kept her head down so that they would not notice one another. The off-leash dog limped off towards Church Street. The man had long gone.

Shaken, I hustled my dog back to my car and called the police to inform them. The officer that answered the phone said she would check the cameras to see if they could locate it.

Last night, October 8, I was about to cross the road with my dog at the traffic lights beside the Ferry Terminal when I heard voices. I looked back as I was crossing and saw two men and the same dog rounding the corner. One man was shouting at him to come along. The dog saw my dog and immediately came out into the street into the traffic to come over to my dog.

I tried to immobilise my dog as best I could, but when she realised another dog was right up on her, she went wild.

I shouted frantically at the man to come and get his dog. In the nick of time, he grabbed the dog by the collar and dragged it out into the street. The dog went limp and laid down in the middle of the street. The man had to partly lift and drag it towards the Ferry Terminal.

We were seconds away from a really bad situation. I once again called the police to report it. The officer this time said the police did not handle dog calls unless someone was hurt, and suggested I call the dog wardens. I asked if they came out at night and he said yes. The call ended there.

A few minutes later, he called back and gave me the number for the dog wardens and said to call it, leave a voicemail and someone would call me back. I did so. I am yet to get a call back from the dog wardens. I called them this morning, but got no answer.

This is a very dangerous situation. Any knowledgeable dog owner knows that you do not let two strange dogs come face-to-face in close proximity. Many people walk dogs on Front Street. If this unstable man continues to have this dog off leash, something bad will inevitably happen.

He thinks he can control the dog with his voice, which obviously he cannot do. What will it take to get someone to do something about it? Someone from Pitts Bay losing a designer dog?

I knew exactly where he was when I called to report it. Now, he and the dog could be anywhere. The dog is hurt but he does not seem to care. It is entirely likely that the dog is mistreated.

Mr Editor, I hope this letter will wake someone up who can address this problem. When walking my dog in the city for the past eight years, I have never seen an off-leash dog until now. It is infuriating and distressing that the very people that are supposed to enforce the law and protect us from such situations seem to be totally uninterested in doing so.

CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS

Devonshire