A voice for Bear
LOREN BENOIT/Press Missy Holbrook hugs Cimaron Moore a week after Moore found Holbrook’s 92-pound chocolate Labrador/pit bull mix in a small drainage off East Hayden Lake Road. Since, two warning signs have been posted at the site.
LOREN BENOIT/Press Since the dog owned by Timberlake High freshman Missy Holbrook died, two signs stating “Danger: Fast flowing water. Do not enter” have been erected at the small drainage off East Hayden Lake Road. One of the signs is on the fence next to the larger, safer spillway. The other was attached to a wood post that was pounded in the grate of the smaller drainage where Bear died. It is unknown who knocked down the sign.
LOREN BENOIT/Press A man watches his dogs carefully as they play in the water at a drainage off East Hayden Lake Road Monday afternoon. Two signs stating “Danger: Fast flowing water. Do not enter” were erected at the site after Missy Holbrook’s dog died in a nearby drainage.
LOREN BENOIT/Press A memorial rests atop a Hayden Lake drainage grate for Missy Holbrook’s dog, Bear, at the spot where Bear was pulled under the drainage more than a week ago.
HAYDEN LAKE — While warning signs have been posted at a Hayden Lake site where a dog was sucked into the drainage and died over Memorial Day Weekend, a pet group assisting the canine’s owner is demanding more be done.
Bear, a 92-pound chocolate Labrador/pit bull mix, was headed back to a dock from fetching a ball near the spillways just south of Honeysuckle Beach when the current pulled him underwater and into the smaller drainage.
“His death was a needless, senseless and completely preventable tragedy,” Wendi Preston of Lost, Found and Adoptable Pets of CDA said in a prepared statement. “It’s a beautiful place to fish and enjoy the beauty of North Idaho. However, the drainage system is a death trap.”
Since the dog owned by Timberlake High freshman Missy Holbrook died, two signs stating “Danger: Fast flowing water. Do not enter” were erected at the site.
One of the signs is on the fence next to the larger, safer spillway. The other was attached to a wood post that was pounded in the grate of the smaller drainage where Bear died. However, someone had already knocked over that sign as of Monday afternoon.
The pet group also posted two yellow caution signs, but one of those had been taken down and the other was placed in the fence near the other sign after it had been posted in a different spot. No signs were posted at the site when Bear died.
A call to the office of the Dalton Gardens Irrigation District, which oversees the drainages, to inquire if the district posted the “Fast flowing water” signs was not returned on Monday. Paul Montreuil, a board member of the district, couldn’t be reached for comment.
A message left with an administrator of ICRMP, the district’s insurer, wasn’t returned.
Preston said the irrigation district told her it posted two of the signs.
Preston said the pet group has retained Coeur d’Alene attorney Erik Smith to schedule a meeting in the next 48 hours with the irrigation district in its effort to have safety improvements made so animals — or even children — can’t get sucked under the grate.
“I’ve been getting the runaround,” Preston said.
The warning signs are a start to make the area safer, but they are not enough, Preston said.
“We want fencing or to buoy it off — common sense,” she said.
Preston said the group does not want the popular fishing and recreation area shut down to the public. They just want to make it safer in hopes of preventing another tragedy, she said.
Even with the “Do not enter” sign on the fence next to the larger spillway, dogs and their owners were still freely entering that area on Monday afternoon.
Holbrook said while she was pleased to see the signs, she also hopes additional safety measures can be taken.
“It’s still dangerous,” she said.
Hayden’s Cimarron Moore, who freed Bear from the drainage and recovered his body, said he thinks simple steps can be taken to make the drainage safer.
“I believe a lack of maintenance caused this incident,” he said. “Preventative maintenance saves everything in the long run.”
Preston said she was furious to learn that other dogs across the state, including one about 20 years ago at the drainage where Bear died, had similar deaths.
“I will not allow Bear’s sacrifice to be in vain,” she said. “No way. I don’t quit.”