Living in Vancouver's West End, we typically go to the farmer's market on Saturdays in the West End. The market is held on a street beside a small park / school yard. In the small park is a new area, a fenced-off area without grass. This is the off-leash dog run. The dogs are kept inside by the fences, so their humans can let them off their leashes and the dogs have a most enjoyable time socializing with other dogs without any fear that they will run away.
This off-leash area is a hit with the dogs. Many of them lead their humans to the gates and look up expectantly - even if the humans claim "You were just in there! We have to go home now!" Watching these dogs having such a great time is also very enjoyable for all the humans in and around the dog run.
This weekend we didn't make it to the Saturday market, so we had to go with our backup plan: the farmer's market in Kitsilano on Sunday morning. It's the same vendors, but the customers are a completely different group of people. We try to avoid this, but sometimes we just can't do a Saturday.
So I was sitting on a bench waiting for the spouse to get back from the first drop-off trip to the car and I noticed something I found really odd. The market is held in a school parking lot, in the field to the south of the market there seemed to be a off-leash child run.
The setup was the same as the off-leash dog run in the West End, fences to keep close-to-the-ground off-leash beings inside, some apparatus for them to climb on, a variety of adult humans around the edges having conversations among themselves, and about as much noise and running and colliding as you can see in the West End dog run. But the off-leash beings were definitely human. Is this an off-leash child run?
So does this mean the dogs are being treated like children? Or does this mean the children are being treated like dogs?
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