Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: In this episode, we visit Meaford in Ontario, home to the Beautiful Joe Park.
It's more than the green space. It's a tribute to a real dog whose story changed how people think about animals.
Back in the 1800s, a dog named Beautiful Joe was rescued from abuse.
His story, written by Margaret Marshall Saunders, has sold over 7 million copies worldwide. It was first published in 1893 and became the first Canadian book to sell over a million copies.
Today, the park that bears his name honours that legacy with monuments to service dogs, education programs and quiet places to reflect.
Joining me is Sharon Mansion, Vice chair of the Beautiful Joe Heritage Society.
She's part of the team keeping Jo's story alive and making sure it still matters.
My name is John Littlefair and welcome to Never Just A Dog.
Sharon, thanks for joining me. I'm absolutely fascinated by me fitting in Ontario.
What's your area like to live in and to explore?
[00:01:24] Speaker B: We're on Georgian Bay, we're two and a half hours from Toronto Airport, so it's far enough, but close enough.
There's lots of hiking here, there's trails, there's pebble orchards. There's a ski hill 20 minutes away. Small ski hill. It's not like a big mountain out in bc, but we kind of have everything here.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: Did you grow up in the area or did you move there at some stage during your life?
[00:01:48] Speaker B: I'm a transplant.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: That's a new way of saying it.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: We moved up here when we retired 13 years ago, so we could have moved anywhere. And we moved from just outside Peterborough, which is east of here, the other way from Toronto.
But because this place had everything with the good hiking and it's a very dog friendly community, top marks. So we moved.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Are you classed as a local now? In Australia, there's a myth that you have to stay in a place for 20 years before you become a local.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: We always laugh here. Like in so many small towns in Ontario, you need your grandparents to be in the cemetery before you're a local. I'm originally from a small, small village as well and then of course went to school in Toronto, ended up living in Calgary for a while and lived in a lot of different locales. That's why Meaford's so close to me, because we chose it. It wasn't because of work or because of something else or family or whatever. This is where we wanted to be and we absolutely love it.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Tell me about Beautiful Jo now. I believe the book was written by an author called Margaret Sanders in around about 1894.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Yep. Margaret Marshall Saunders. And it was published in 1894. Written in 1892. 93.
And it is about a local dog here in Eford.
Now, it was written as a children's book and it was submitted to a competition based in Boston. They were looking for submissions that would teach children about kindness to animals.
Now, to back up a step, the true story of Beautiful Joe. He was horribly abused by his original owner. He was former.
And again, this dates back to the 1890s, and the farmer, in a fit of rage, cut off his ears and his tail.
Luckily, a local family whose last name was Moore, rescued the dog and he lived to be 14 years old.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: I listened to the audiobook version of Beautiful Joe recently. It's fascinating. It's so cruel, but it was so beautiful that he managed to very luckily be rescued and live out a better life than the way that he was definitely heading.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Absolutely. The book starts off with a bang, like so many novels did back then.
And again, it's written for a children's audience, but wow, it's hard to take as an animal lover until you get past those first 10, 15 pages.
And then as one little girl in the park told me one day, oh, it's a chapter book.
So each chapter is an ovable story.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: So that became part of the. Was it the education curriculum in Canada?
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Yes, it did. I don't have a great amount of details on in still some small schools. And it's in the library's office.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: What was the origins of the Beautiful Joe park, had that been set up and was up and running before you and your family moved to Meaford?
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Yes, the house where Beautiful Joe was rescued, it's a chance at the crest of the hill.
So Beautiful Joe park today would have been his backyard.
So it was severed from that property back in the early 1960s. The mayor at the time, whose name was Frank Garvey, he was also with the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club. He knew how important this story of Beautiful Joe was to the community.
And for Canadians, he knew also that it was getting lost. His story was old. People had forgotten about it. So he was determined to turn this land into a park.
So he and the crew from the Rotary Club and some other volunteers went into the park and started clearing the land.
Now, the locals knew that Beautiful Joe was buried by the river because it was all the river. No one quite knew where. And again, been buried for over 20 years.
So sure enough, the rumor I just story I just recently heard was from someone who used to work for Frank and she Tells about him going down on his hands and knees in the park looking for a marker, which he found.
So that marker was then authenticated by the Historical Board of Ontario and a major plaque was put up, which you could see on our website.
So that's how it started dating back to about 1963.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: How did you get involved with the Beautiful Joe Park?
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Well, we had just recently moved up here and we were just feeling our way around what we wanted to get involved with that sort of thing. We were dogless at the time.
We had, when we had moved, the dog had passed about a year before. And because we knew we were moving and we didn't know where we were moving, we didn't feel it was fair to take a dog with us until we got settled.
So I, eventually my husband and I both got involved with the Beautiful Joe Heritage Society. We decided to join the board and it was just the ticket. It was just exactly what I needed. And I think it was just what the society needed at that time as well.
They needed someone with a sales and marketing background, which I had.
And it's strictly volunteer, the board. No one gets paid. We just do it because we love it.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Is this your full time role?
[00:07:09] Speaker B: I volunteer with some other groups. I am retired. So this community is just massively involved with volunteering.
So whatever comes up that strikes your fancy, get involved. It's always worth it.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: And can visitors take their own dogs to the Beautiful Joe Park?
[00:07:28] Speaker B: Absolutely. We encourage dog activity down there. However, it is an on leash only park. A lot of different reasons for that over the years, but one of the main ones is local dog trainers. Love that dogs are on a leash in the park because then if you do have a reactive dog, you can move it into another portion of the park or there's not the big goofy dog that comes bounding up to your reactive dog and suddenly there's a problem.
And so we do basically demand dogs be on a leash.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Do a lot of locals take their dogs down there just to spend time in the park? And so a lot of tourists come through as well?
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Yes. And yes. We are working on creating a pedestrian footbridge across the river balance Beautiful Joe park to another small, basically underutilized municipal park.
So once that happens, we can improve tourism because tour buses can then gain access to the park, which they can't right now because of the sloped driveway that gets you in.
As we always kind of joke that you can get, we can get you in, but we just can't get you out.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: So people just have to stay there for the rest of their lives.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Exactly right.
It's not a horrible hill, but just to give you a visual, the kids toboggan on it in the wintertime and it's like little kids to log in there. So it's not that it's dangerous, but the way the park is set up to come down the driveway to get a bus turned around and get back out is a real issue. Once bridge goes in, it's completely level access.
Wheelchairs can get in, families with strollers can get in and of course tour buses can park on the other side and come in that route.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: So do you get a lot of snow there during the winter months?
[00:09:15] Speaker B: No, we had lots this year actually. When during the winter months. Beautiful Joe park is closed as far as driveway itself is barricaded so people can't get in with vehicles.
I will go in the park in the winter with my cleats off because of the hill and a bit of ice. I just feel much more secure going down that hill. And then once you're inside the park, it's all level ground.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Do you and the foundation hold events.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: During the year again because of the bridge? We've sort of leveled that off within the park. But once the bridge goes in, we will be doing that swamps again.
But we have had super dogs in. I'm not sure if you've heard of them.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: No. Tell me about the superdogs.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: They're organized dogs which were mostly mutts, some have been shelter dogs, that sort of thing. And they're fully trained to do all kinds of really cool stuff at the. They're always one of the main features at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto every year without fail.
We've had the canine units come and do demonstrations as well.
They're awesome.
And you never know what you're going to get when you get the canine group in for the fact that it depends on who's working that day. If there's suddenly a senior that's gotten missing, you may not get to search a rescue dog because he's out looking for that person. We've had a bomb sniffer dog, we've had drug dogs, lots of different stuff. But again, you don't know until the day of who's coming.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: So is that with a local police department? They bring their service dogs in. So like, let's say it's a bomb sniffer dog or a drug detective dog or search and rescue?
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Yep. That's all organized for the Ontario Provincial Police. Contact them, they'll get the criteria and then Like I say, the day of the event is when you see what you get.
But their vehicles are awesome because they're like a full suv, but they're fully air conditioned, engine running, so there's no problem. People forking out, oh, there's a dog in there. And it's hot, the poor thing.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: And they have such a close connection, a canine handler with their dog. They're in such a true partnership.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Just on that as well, because you have several monuments within your park and one of them is the Police Canine Units monument.
Describe what that looks like to me because it's fascinating.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: It was the very first monument that we put into the Ocean General park, and that goes back to the year 2000. The Vienna Joseph's Heritage Society started back in 1994. And we're turning the park into a place that celebrates the animal human bond.
So we felt the Police Canine Units was an excellent place to start.
What the monument is, it's made of wet granite and there's etched in is a German shepherd. And then on beneath are being the words engraved, oh, gosh, now you've got me. And I think it does carry on to say International Police K9 unit. So it's not strictly the Ontario Provincial Police K9 unit. It's for all K9 units worldwide. Interesting little story about that. And anyone who knows me always knows I have a little interesting story with a lot of little things here on Canada day, which is July 1st. And this goes back to about 2017.
We'd been down at the local Canada Day festivals.
I'd taken a bunch of pictures. I came home, I unloaded the vehicle, fired up the laptop, getting ready to download some pictures. And I'm usually the one who checks Facebook and sees what's going on there.
And our chair at the time, who's still our chair, she doesn't usually do the Facebook thing as far as direct messaging, that type of thing. Sure enough, she's got a guy on the line who wants to come see me at the Joe park, and he's interested in the canine or the K9 unit memorial.
Could he come?
Anyway, to make a long story short, he got back in touch with us when he was coming to have a look.
So he said, perfect, we'd like to meet you there. We'll give you the tour.
So to give you a little further information, which we have background, just before, he had family from Orangeville, which is about an hour away from here, that he was visiting. The reason he was coming is because he had lost his canine partner The November before, in the line of duty.
The reason he was visiting was because he was coming from Liverpool, uk, and the reason he was coming is because he'd lost Ghost in the line of duty. He wanted to set up a memorial and they did not have one in all of the uk, so he wanted to know what we had done, how we'd done it and that sort of thing and have a closer look at ours.
So his name was David Bartby.
He was with the Mersey Detachment at the time. His dog's name was Ghost.
And as I tell his story in the park, as I'm doing tours during COVID someone piped up and said, well, did he get the monument? And I said, well, I don't know, but I know how I can find out. As soon as I got home, I found Damon's email again.
Two days later, I got an email from him with attachment. He had just unveiled the monument three weeks before outside the Mersey Detachment, and it was this bronze statue of his dog, Ghost in running mode. It's absolutely gorgeous.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: He came all the way from Liverpool in the UK to see your monument there at Beautiful Joe Park.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: He had already started fundraising and when he was standing there, he had a pastel bluish gray T shirt on with a really beautiful graphic on the front in the shape of a German shepherd.
As you look closer, there were the names of 32 dogs within that and the tail was Ghost.
Those are all the dogs that have been killed in the line of duty with the detachment.
Teachers were being sold as a fundraiser for the Canine Unit memorial.
So that's one of the ways they raised the money to get that bronze statue they have.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: That's incredible. And have you been tempted to go and visit Florida? Fly across to Liverpool?
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Of course. I'm inducted.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Are you still in touch with David now?
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Occasionally he does chime in.
Last we turned, he was on the Isle of Man and he was no longer. No longer had a dog. As far as a working dog, do.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: You have dogs now of your own?
[00:15:48] Speaker B: You knew I would.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Tell me about that.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, she's a ball of fire.
Once we got settled here in Meaford, of course it was time to get a dog.
So we ended up with a Nova Scotia duck tune retriever.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Now you've caught me on that one.
And she's a girl. Yeah. What's her name?
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Her name is Fundy.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Fundy.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: You're familiar with Canada? Yes, the Bay of Fundy that separates Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
So decided Fundy was definitely the name for this Nova Scotia duct Tulane retriever.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: I've never actually heard of that breed of dog. So fill me in.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: You're not alone.
She is the smallest of the retrievers.
She's a duck dog.
She's orange.
She looks like a small gold retriever, but she has white paws and a white blaze down her chest and then a small pimple blade on her tail and usually a white blaze down her nose.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: And she loves, obviously loves the water.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: She loves it like I do. She likes to know where the bottom is. But she does like, really enjoys chasing big stick, that sort of thing.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: Best toy in the world, a stick or a ball. I'm not sure which dogs prefer one or the other better, but definitely the cheapest toy in the world and the most love he's gained from that with a dog.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: Going back to monuments within the park, there's one for service animals.
Is that for personal service or is that leaning more towards search and rescue or something completely different.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: The monument was recently put in in 2006 and it was dedicated is the word I'm looking for. It was dedicated to Ron Brown who was with Vision Canada.
So his involvement was with Seeing Eye Dots, but it also includes the hearing dogs, dogs that help with ptsd, dogs that may help individuals as far as opening refrigerators, you know, doing that sort of stuff, people in wheelchairs. It's sort of all encompassing.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Another very special monument within the beautiful Jo park is the 911 monument, which I believe was opened or unveiled in 2002 by a mutual friend of ours, David Limited. Yeah, and I was really honored to do an episode with him a couple of years ago. So David was part of the Port Authority Police Department of New York. He was stationed at the World Trade center when those terrible attacks happened.
And he was there with his partner who was a bomb detector dog called Sirius. And Sirius unfortunately lost his life on that day. And so how did it come about?
Did you approach David to say, look, we're going to build this monument to dedicated to the dogs of 9 11.
Tell me how that all transpired.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: I've been investigating that myself because of course it was before my time.
The Chamber of Commerce had an administrator that they she was going to be going to New York Post 9 11.
So it was determined that she would go and see if she could get had an opportunity to meet with David Lim and get further detail on Sirius. And Joe Heritage decided he had in the motion that we were going to put this monument in. And we really would like David to come to the unveil so she did go. They did manage to connect. She ended up meeting him, I believe at an airport in New York. That's how the ball got started.
His boss, Dean Ciccarelli, also was instrumental in getting the two of them up here to Canada for that unveiling.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Tell me what that monument looks like. The 911 monument, I gotta call it.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: Two structures of stone and the base of it is cement work in the shape of the Pentagon.
The two rocks make it the World Trade center, the Twin Towers.
So that was the idea and that was created by one of our founding members.
Good, genuine. That was his conception.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: And David came and unveiled the monument.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Now, the day of the unveiling, I'll just tell you a little something about that was we had no clue this was coming.
But when it was unveiled, the town of Reefer was given a cross made from the girders of the fallen World Trade Center.
It was later attached left hand side of the stonework along with an indicator that tells that this is a piece of the beams from the World Trade center that was donated at that time.
Directly across from it there is a bench that was donated by Gunter Newman for his dog Piper. When his dog passed, he decided he'd like a bench within the park and that's exactly where he wanted it. There's a small plaque on the back of it indicating this is for Piker.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: And that was put there after Gunther passed away.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: Piper's bench went in in 2017.
The plaque was put on it on 2018 and in 2018, in May, that's when Denso passed.
So the society in his honor planted a red oak within the park with a small information post indicating that was dedicated to Windsor Newland.
And the reason we selected the red oak is it's native here in Canada and it was also native in his homeland in Germany.
There's a lot of thought going into the park and it always seems right that one of the founders be given as much thought as well.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: Can people camp at the park? Is there a campground or is it strictly day use only? Meaning you can go in during the day and then you have to leave at the end of the day?
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Absolutely. It is not a camping location. It's only 8 and a half acres and no camp, no overnight. We do have a wonderful campground not, not far from it called Memorial Park. And at Memorial park there's lots of camping and the easternmost portion is Reese, free for dogs.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: So with regards to the park, does it rely on fundraising? Because obviously it needs upkeeping and it needs to keep the Facilities open for everyone to enjoy.
Is it mainly fundraising from people going to the park and paying an entry fee and spending within the park, or do you rely on donations? How does that work?
[00:22:26] Speaker B: The park itself is municipally owned. We, the beautiful Jo Herich. I like to refer to ourselves as the steward of the stewards of the park and the ambassadors of the story.
Now, that being said, we were the ones that kind of had the forethought of the pathway in the park, of putting the monument into the park.
General layout and advertising for the park has fallen on our shoulders quite a lot.
And the fundraising for the monuments, that was us. We're the ones who raised the fund and ongoing.
Yes. For example, I've talked about the bridge that. The pedestrian bridge that we're planning to put in.
We're trying to raise $130,000, which is not the full cost of the bridge. Bridge. Municipality will be looking after the footings and the actual installation, that sort of thing. But we determined that $130,000 at the time would have been the cost of the physical bridge.
And to date, we're at $114,000.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Wow. You're getting close.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: We are getting very close. We have been so fortunate through the locals, through people outside Canada, have donated through fundraising on our own, but we have had no government funding because we do not own the land. Therefore, we cannot get a grant. The municipality could.
But the complication is everybody's chasing all that same money. Right. Where you live within the province, is.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: There a link that people can go to to donate or is mainly through your website?
[00:24:01] Speaker B: Absolutely. You do all that right from the.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Website beautifuljoe.org Something I came across on your website, which I really loved. Tell me about the rocks, the painted rocks.
How did that start?
[00:24:15] Speaker B: Okay, that was an idea that just sort of happened. The park is beautiful, but it's very, very shady. So when it comes to growing flowers, we really got tired of the greenery because nothing else will grow because it's so shaded and silvery spots.
So I saw something online about a school group that had put a bunch of these painted rocks up beside one of their. I think it was one of their outbuildings. So then we got the community involved painting rocks that we'd sealed, put them within the parrot, and it just sort of evolved. Well, they definitely add color. They also add conversation.
Actually, I just passed one of them last fall. It was in the crotch, like the base of a tree. It was bright orange, and it had the word Las Vegas. And I thought, did they bring that with them because I think that's a really cool idea.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Can people bring their own painted rocks and just position them there for people to find all the time?
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Yep, yep. We. And essentially we encourage was something called kind Kindest rocks.
During COVID it was a big thing where people would paint a rock. Now, the bottom of it, they put for example, here Meaford and me Meford Rocks. If it was from Thornbury, the town down the way, it'd be Thornbury Rocks. So there are all these little groups that were a social media thing, so you'd take a rock and leave a rock. It was all very cool. But again, no one could do anything during COVID so it was like a good past five.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: So during COVID were would people paint rocks at home and then send to your park or could they still visit and drop off or. That was a no.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: No, because everything during COVID How do I quit this? The park got busy only because with the social distancing that we had here, it was one of the few things you could actually go outside and do. We got discovered we have pet memorial plaques there at the park. Sales of the pet memorial plaques went up 200% during COVID because we got discovered.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: So people that have lost their own pets, they can purchase a plaque to go into your park with their name on it in dedication to their own pets that have passed over?
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Absolutely.
We currently have 250 pet memorial plaques on the two kiosks that are there, which we call Paradise Islands. They're called Paradise Islands because that was a sequel to Beautiful Joe, the book by Margaret Marshall Saunders.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Do people have to visit the park to purchase a plaque that would go in there or could they do it at a distance? Let's say someone from Australia or someone from the uk. Could they purchase one online and then.
Wow. So how does that happen? How would someone purchase a dedication plaque to go into the beautiful Jo Park?
[00:27:12] Speaker B: It's fairly simple. You just go to the website, go over to the store. From there, it'll show you you can buy a plaque, you can buy the book, that sort of thing. So you just click on the plaque, fill in the dedication, it comes in by email.
We send the information that you wanted done off to our grader.
She sends back a proof. You get the proof and determine what changes need to be made.
We go back and forth until we get it exactly right, because these things are important.
And then once it's placed within the park, a photograph is then sent to you as proof that it's been mounted.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Oh, wow. That's incredible. Did that start during COVID or was that something that.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: Oh, no, that started back in before Sirius, so about 2000. And that was going to be one of the fundraising methods that we have.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Sharon, I have one last question for you. So when you enter the park, is that where the Beautiful Jo statue is, right at the front when you walk in? Tell me about that.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: Okay.
The way it's structured right now is when you come down the driveway, which is sloped, as I mentioned, there's a small parking lot there.
Almost right in front of you is a Beautiful Joe statue.
It's made of bronze. He's basically life size, which he was a fox terrier, bull terrier, mace. And he's there in all his glory with no ears, no tail, and he's in a reclining position. And he was again, he was made by Gutenut. Now, the key to Mutant Joe is we always say be sure to pat his head because you may get a hundred dog years of good luck.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: And it works because I'm here and I patted Joe's head pretty much every time I go into that part.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: Sharon, thanks for your time. It's been really lovely to chat with you. And I can't wait to come and visit the Beautiful Jo park in Meaford in Ontario, Canada. It's going to be amazing.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: Oh, this has been an absolute pleasure. We're just thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Beautiful Jo back to the world before we sort of got lost for a number of years, but we're determined to get him back out here.
Thank you so very much, John.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: To discover more about Beautiful Joe park in Meaford, Ontario, head to beautifuljoe.org I'll paste a link in the show notes, so simply scroll down to find this in your podcast app. There'll be a link to their store as well as including how to purchase a Paradise island memorial plaque for your own dog.
My name is John Littlefair and thank you for listening to this episode of Never Just a Dog.
