The Times - UK (2020-10-17)

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the times | Saturday October 17 2020 1GM 3


News


When an air leak brewed up potential


trouble for the International Space Sta-


tion, Russian crew members came up


with an unconventional solution.


Frustrated by a small drop in the air


pressure that had persisted since


August, for which the cause could not


be found, Anatoly Ivanishin raided the


galley for a solution.


“We believe that we have really iden-


tified the probable leakage area. We


have distributed a teabag,” he an-


nounced to ground controllers.


The mystery had confounded the


Russian and US space agencies despite


TOM NICHOLSON FOR THE TIMES

Bring dog


walkers


to heel,


demands


RSPCA


In April 1818 the poet John Keats


wrote in a letter how he and Samuel


Taylor Coleridge had walked to-


gether on Hampstead Heath and


talked about “a thousand things...


nightingales, poetry, poetical sensa-


tion, metaphysics”. But not, aston-


ishing as it may seem to modern


ears, about dogs.


For now it is impossible to walk


more than a few yards in parks


around the country without coming


across dogs: yapping, barking, chas-


ing balls, going about their business


— and, as often as not, in the care of


a professional dog walker.


As the heath becomes the latest


open space to propose controls, the


RSPCA has issued a fresh call for pro-


fessional dog walkers to be regulated


in the same way as kennels and breed-


ers. “You will see people taking six to


eight dogs,” Sam Gaines, the RSPCA’s


head of the companion animals depart-


ment, said. “You have to question whe-


ther one individual can control that


number of dogs, and also whether they


can provide for [their] welfare needs.”


Dr Gaines said the charity wants


commercial dog walkers to be included


in animal welfare regulations, with a


limit of four dogs per walker. “There is


no national licensing system for


commercial dog walkers,” she said. “A


lot of people provide dog-walking


services who don’t have to adhere to


regulations and [who] have not been


checked by any authority that has a


knowledge of animal welfare.”


Paula Boyden, veterinary director of


the Dogs Trust, welcomed the idea of a


national licensing system as long as it
could be enforced. “While the vast
majority of dog-walkers are in that
profession because they love dogs,
there are going to be some people who
see it as an easy way to make money.”
They may not know how to look after
dogs or recognise how they affect other
people, she said. “If you are walking
around with half a dozen dogs, for
somebody who is frightened of dogs
that is going to be quite daunting.”
The City of London Corporation,
which manages Hampstead Heath, the
largest area of common land in the
capital, wants dog walkers to be
licensed and limited to four dogs each.
This follows complaints about
walkers with more than ten dogs, which

Space station up the spout? It’s time for tea


data trawls and physical searches of the
108-metre long space station.
On Wednesday, shortly before the
scheduled arrival of three new crew-
mates — two Russians and an Amer-
ican — Mr Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner
released the teabag inside the entry
chamber leading to the Russian seg-
ment of the space station, the Zvezda
module, then sealing the area off.
Using video and still cameras to
monitor the tea’s path as it floated in mi-
crogravity, directed by the air flow, they
found a fracture in a metallic surface.
The crew placed a temporary seal
over the crack using polyurethane
foam and duct tape, reducing the leak

until a permanent repair is completed.
The control unit of a science experi-
ment on board the space station also
had to be switched off after it started
emitting smoke and an oxygen genera-
tor broke down.
About 350 miles above the space sta-
tion, at an altitude of 616 miles, two
large items of space junk came close to
a catastrophic collision early yesterday.
A defunct Russian satellite and a seg-
ment from an old Chinese rocket
passed each other safely at a relative
velocity of 32,900mph, radar data
showed. “Bullet dodged,” reported
Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-
Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.

Jacqui Goddard Miami


they struggle to keep under control.
Between October 2018 and October
2020 there were 343 dog-related
incidents, with six going to court.
The City suggests issuing 20 licences
for morning walks and 20 for after-
noon walks.
The Royal Parks and several
councils already have licence schemes
for dog walkers.
John Beyer, of the Heath &
Hampstead Society, said professional
dog walkers were coming to make
money and should pay towards
upkeep of the heath. “It does not stay
beautiful by itself. It takes a lot of staff
to do that,” he said.
On the heath, one dog walker,
Phoenix Gomez, 50, said: “You will
see people walking five or six dogs,
which is too many. Sometimes these
are warrior breed dogs, big dogs, which
are difficult to control. I think it is good
that dog-walking is regulated..”
Laura Goodman, who markets
herself under the brand Little Legs Dog
Walking, said: “A limit of four big dogs
would be great but maybe you could
handle five or six small ones.”
She and her colleague Laura Marcos
were looking after seven dogs between
them. “There’s too many for one person
to handle here,” she said. “They all have
big personalities, these little dogs.”
However, Kris Sikora, 23, general
manager of Green Dog Walking,
pointed out that a limit of four dogs
could, with cancellations, mean a
walker ended up with just two or three.
“It is not really a sustainable living,” he
said.

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Professionals could be limited to four


pets at a time and require a licence


under plans to save our parks from


canine chaos, writes Valentine Low


Kris Sikora, top, a
professional dog
walker, worries
about making a
living if there is a
limit on the number
of dogs. Laura
Marcos, above left,
and Laura Goodman
believe a restriction
should be based on
the size of the dogs

Russian members of
the crew tracked the
path of a floating
teabag to find a leak
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