Keep your dog on a leash.
That's the message from Essex mayor Sherry Bondy following an incident over the weekend at Bridlewood Optimist Park.
According to Ontario Provincial Police, officers investigated a dog bite incident in Essex on Sunday where a person suffered non-life threatening injuries.
While limited details have been provided by OPP, social media posts have stated that two dogs got into a fight and one of the owners was injured after trying to break the dogs apart.
Bondy says while she can't comment on this exact incident, it's not acceptable for anybody to have their dog off leash.
Currently, the Town of Essex only has one dog park at the Essex Centre Sports Complex where they can be off leash. Signage is up at all other public parks stating that dogs must be on a leash.
Bondy says pet owners need to be responsible.
"At no time on any public park that is not a dog park should you have your dog off leash. I know it's tempting, say at night you don't see anybody out, 'hey, I'll just let little Rover off for a little bit', but that is something that you put your dogs safety in jeopardy and also your own."
She says there are signs up in town parks stating that dogs must be on a leash.
"And a lot of people don't obey that, and you'll see in particular on my social media there's a common complaint at Sadler's Pond in Essex, so I did meet with the CAO on this, and we're going to talk again to our bylaw department to make sure we have resources going out, our Animal Control going out."
She adds that residents are encouraged to report dogs being off leash before an incident occurs.
"If our town bylaw is on, they can respond. After hours you could still always call the OPP non-emergency. There was a recent incident, and I'm certainly not going to take sides, but there was definitely some animals hurt, and some owners hurt because dogs broke off leash, so certainly call the proper channels."
OPP continues to investigate the incident.
Bondy says there is a plan to add another dog park in Harrow where dogs can roam free.