A Vancouver man and a dog are both dead after drowning in a creek last week. According to CTV news, a fellow dog owner is calling for safety measures in the area.
Man and dog die from drowning in creek
On Friday, May 19, Keen Lau and his spouse, Lisa, went for an evening stroll by the shores of Cypress Creek. Their neighbor’s dog, a Labrador Retriever named Loki, accompanied them. Unfortunately, the creek’s current swept the dog away. Lau jumped in the creek to try to save the canine.
“He jumped in to save the dog, then he yelled for Lisa to call 911. But it was too late,” Mayor Mark Sager said, according to CTV News. The bodies of both Lau and Loki emerged downstream on Saturday morning.
“It’s just unthinkable, unthinkable pain. It’s a huge loss,” Sager said. He befriended Lau when he ran for city council in 2022. “We became friends. We have the same passions, we love to ski and cycle and be outdoors.”
Sager continued: “He had a really intense love of our community, he felt very blessed to be living in West Vancouver and he was just a genuinely kind person that wanted to make a difference.”
Dog owner calls for safety measures at creek
Sadly, Loki isn’t the first dog to die in the creek. Skye Barbic, a nearby resident, is a dog owner whose pup was carried away by the same creek’s current two years ago.
“Extreme sadness for the family and a lot of pain,” Barbic, who did not know Lau, told the news outlet. She is advocating for safety measures around the creek to ward off more fatalities.
Her first suggestion? Require leashes for dogs near the creek. (We here at DogTime advocate leashing your dog no matter what the setting when in public.)
Next, she wants more extensive fencing to keep dogs and kids out of the water. Finally, she requests signage that alerts visitors to the dangerous nature of the creek.
“This is not something that needs to go to committee, it has to happen this week. We need to make this area safe,” she said.
Mayor Sager said he has been ruminating on ways to make Cypress Creek safer.
“I had dreams about it last night, thinking what if there was a safety rope. I have no idea, somebody with far more experience in these things than I would know. If there is anything that can be done, I want to do it” Sager said.
