Maciej Chabelski
Sports Editor

My least two favourite words are “he’s friendly.”  
Have you ever been in a park, enjoying a beautiful day, when a dog off his leash has suddenly jumped you?  You look at the owner, pleading for him or her to do something about the situation.  Enter the words: “he’s friendly.”  Oh, thanks, that makes it all better.    
“He’s friendly,” is a modern day ‘abracadabra,’ empty words that promise magical things and offer little in terms of results.  The dog doesn’t listen to the words, as it tries to de-clothe you in a frantic search for food or acceptance.  You won’t listen to them either, as you look to either run or kick out in terror.
I have to make it clear that I love animals.  At one point, I had nine budgies, a fish and a cat in my two bedroom apartment.  My best friend in Poland was a dog named Sara.  
Rather, my beef lies with the dog owners who are often off their ‘leashes’ themselves, blatantly ignoring municipal laws that ban dogs from running free in public parks, school yards and the like. There are 32 off-leash areas in Toronto, and several websites devoted to where owners can take their dogs when it needs some running time, so there’s no excuse for having a dog off-leash anywhere else.
These laws are implemented to safeguard the public from animals.  No matter how often you take your dog to a spa, or how often it recognizes its own name, it’s still an animal, with instincts that include biting human flesh.  
So, it’s nothing personal when I flip you off and kick at your dog when he’s coming at me.  The words, “he’s friendly,” won’t change years of human socialization and ancestry, which tell me to treat anything with sharp teeth as dangerous.