Saturday, September 01, 2007

Why do we need to monitor human behavior?

I was running this morning at Robson Park, which is a non-unleashed-dog park. I had blogged previously about how I found it annoying that dog owners wanted to unleash their dogs in a park where they are supposed to keep their pets leashed. There are other parks in this city where unleashed dogs can run freely. Well, this morning I had two funny incidents. One pet owner stared at me for a good five minutes while I was running. He stood still at a corner of the park, apparently ready to unleash his dog but unsure if he should or not. Had he done it, I probably would have called him on it. Then, after a few minutes, he and his dog left.

A few minutes later, a woman came with a leashed dog, which I thought was cute. After all, she was abiding by the rules. Well, the surprise came a few minutes later when she unleashed her dog, who then proceeded to run around the whole park. The owner seemed amused, but I was really annoyed. So, as I was coming to confront her, she and her dog left.

Both of these incidents have led me to ponder that, unless we monitor human behavior, non-compliance will always one of the default human responses. Even in a society that prides itself in being rule-abiding and law-compliant, we will always find instances of people breaking the law. Some would say, it's human nature.

Now, I don't want to sound prudish. Some rules can and should be flexible. But how hard can it be to follow a rule that says "if you want to let your dog run here, keep it on a leash"? I just wonder...

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