Burgoyne Woods — Attraction in St. Catharines

This review is for the off leash dog area. I'm giving a 4 star rating IMO because it's well maintained with the exception of the huge gap under the gate that goes into to off leash area. Any small dog can wiggle under it and mine and my friend's pups have as well. ( many times)

So what I have to share is quite disturbing on many levels. As a pet parent, you protect your fur baby, make sure they get enough exercise etc etc. So, on Wednesday Sept 25th at 2:30pm, my friend and I were in the small dog area with our 4 dogs total. My puppy and 1 of my friends dog they get excited and bark along the fence when they see larger dogs walking the perimeter to their respective area. A guy walked by with his dog and when our 2 dogs started getting excited (barking) my friend looked at him and noticed he rolled his eyes and looked annoyed, ok no biggie. But here's the disturbing part. When our dogs circled back around to us, we noticed they were both soaking wet. My dog, even more disturbing had blood on the fur of his chin. I grabbed a wet wipe and cleaned him off and then we went to investigate. In both areas, there is a hose attached to the fence and open water source to fill the water bowl etc. When we looked for the shady character, he was sitting on the bench to the far left way in the back. The grass was not wet that day, and our dogs were drenched. We can only surmise that this d- bag, turned the hose on both pups. Seriously, like who does that. We have had an amazing summer there enjoying the park and have met tons of pooches and parents alike. We understand it's a public park, so thought the best course of action would be to post on here just as a forewarning should something this uncalled for action happen again. The areas main purpose is for dogs to run freely. Will some of them bark out of excitement? Absolutely. Were we at a place of worship? No. Were we at a funeral? No. Were we at the library? Again a resounding NO. If that unscrupulous coward happens to see this, you know who you are. What you did was unwarranted and beyond despicable. Your intent was malicious, insidious and downright cruel. Shame on you, seriously. You need to set some goals in your life, perhaps take up a hobby or it's fair to assume professional counselling for anger management because these are not the actions of a sane, balanced person. And if anyone thinks I'm over embellishing, wait til your dog comes back to you soaking wet and with blood on his fur despite not being cut anywhere ( we examined him thoroughly) For those who understand our position thank you kindly, and thanks for taking time out of your day...

Be extremely careful for the safety of yourself and your children! Yesterday we met a guy here who was behaving inappropriately, he was insulting us and after we didn't pay attention he came up and spit in my direction and in the direction of my child, he didn't hit, then he made a small circle, came back after 20 seconds and spit again right on my hand! The kid got scared and this guy kept insulting us, we stepped back and he started roaming the woods looking for a new victim. He was smoking drugs. A man with a dog passing by said that this guy comes here very often and walks and always he is aggressive against everyone and is a danger to others! Insults, spit, fights. This guy drives a black Chrysler Sebring, license plate number «CTAW-161». He was arrested by the police yesterday, but he'll be released soon and he'll be back...

Great mix of shade and sun. There's an abundant amoung of tables for picnicking, including several lined up for large groups. We use the charcoal BBQs all the time, just bring your own pumice, stone to clean it, and some charcoal, and you're good to go. The washrooms are surprisingly clean and don't smell to high heavens.

If you're looking for a great place to hang out with the family for the day, this is it!! But, remember, this is a nature park, you need to make your own...