Tony Orr, St James
I walk regularly along the coastal path from St James tidal pool to Muizenberg station and have been doing this walk for over two years. A lot of elderly people, runners and serious walkers do this walk, which is away from the exhaust fumes up on the Main Road and where users can inhale the healthy ozone-rich air from the adjacent breaking waves.
Over the past six months, this pathway has become increasingly polluted with dog droppings, and moreover many of the dogs being taken on this walk are not on leads.
On the morning of Thursday July 6, there were nine separate droppings along the path, which had not been picked up by the owners and had been invariably trampled along the path for several meters.
The same morning, there was a seal sitting peacefully on the rocks. A dog proceeded to viciously attack the seal. Fortunately, the seal managed to make it back into the sea, but not without injury. The owners of the dog could do nothing to control it – no lead, no discipline.
The signage is causing confusion because at the entrance to the station tunnel, there is a small sign saying, “Please clean up after your pet,” but on the first changing-room wall (on public-toilet side) and at the tunnel on the pool side, there are No Dogs Allowed signs, and on the Muizenberg side of the pathway (just below the station), there is no indication of whether dogs are allowed on the pathway. There are also no signs saying dogs must be kept on a lead.