|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FIVE YEARS OLD AND STILL DEFENDING OUR GROUND |
|
NFDOG is celebrating its fifth birthday. It began to emerge as a small pressure group of Brockenhurst residents and spectacularly took off at the now legendary meeting held on July 3, 2001, at Lyndhurst Park Hotel. 2000-plus dog walkers, infuriated by continuing foot and mouth disease restrictions that had been lifted for other Forest users, turned up and brought the town to a halt. The police struggled to cope with grid locked traffic as the meeting spilled out of the hotel across to Bolton’s Bench. The media scrambled for pictures as “men-in-suits”, clearly shaken by the strength of opposition, attempted to justify the continuing ban on walking dogs off the lead. They failed and the ban was dropped a short time later. Chairman Pauline Ludlow, in whose lounge the nascent group first met, said: “Our focus then and now has not changed. We exist mainly to defend our freedom to walk our dogs, responsibly and under control, On the Forest – Off the Lead. “We have had to address many other side issues along the way. This is because there are attempts to impose restrictions on dog walkers that do not apply to other recreational users of the Forest. This happens without a shred of evidence that dogs and their owners cause any more disturbances than other user groups. “It would be nice to think there was no need for an organisation like NFDOG. However, my guess is that we will still be around for many more years to ensure that dog owners are protected from prejudice.”
|
|
|
Site designed and hosted by
Copyright © 2000 New Forest
On Line Ltd. |
