Dog's Take Over City Parks
I got an interesting e-mail from Rob Jett today. Rob is a great birder and spends a lot of time in Prospect Park. I totally agree with Rob because my own experiences in Central Park bear him out.Just one small example:
The photo at the left is of an unleashed dog chasing Canada Geese in the Pool in Central Park this spring. The dog was part of a group of 15-20 being walked by a woman who owns a dog-walking service in the area. She treats that area like a personal dog run and her dogs have destroyed a lot of habitat and chased away lots of birds. Appeals to Parks Enforcement, the local zone gardener, and other park officials fell on deaf ears. She continues her abuse of the park and its wildlife to this day.
People tell me that dogs in Central Park will never be brought under control because the big contributers to the Central Park Conservancy all live around the park and have dogs. I hate to think this is the "unofficial" position of Parks and the Conservancy but it seems the facts bear this out.
I am not a dog hater--we always had dogs growing up--but the situation has really gotten out of hand. It used to be, if I stuck to the north end of the park, I didn't have any problems. That's not true any more--the north end has just as many (if not more) unleashed dogs running around than downtown.
Cal,
I recently posted on eBirdsNYC a note about enforcing NYC's leash laws. After stumbling upon your tribute to "Ducky" I thought I would send you the following information. Prospect Park has had numerous incidents where wildlife was killed by an unrestrained dog (even dogs by dogs). There used to be a pair of resident opossums in Prospect Park that were killed by unleashed dogs.
Juniper Park Civic Association has set-up an online petition to compel the City of New York to enforce the current leash law in city parks. Dog owners unleashing their dogs in public places has caused numerous problems to people, dogs, wildlife and property.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Juniper2/petition.html
The issue has not only been ignored, but also encouraged by city officials.
I've been accused of being a dog hater. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I am one of 8 kids. Over the years we've had 4 dogs, 5 cats, numerous gerbils and hamsters, lizards...well, you get the idea. It's not about the animals, it's about the inconsiderate owners. Anyway, if you'd like to help rein in the problem I urge you to sign the petition. You might also want to check out another blog set-up to document the problem, as well as, provide useful informational links:
http://brooklynparks.blogspot.com/
Also, I've attached a flyer that you may want to spread around.
Please pass the information along to as many people as possible.
Thanks,
Rob
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The City Birder Weblog
http://citybirder.blogspot.com
