Q: should there be legal limits on animals/pets in an urban setting?
When I read this piece by Anne Whinston Spirn I couldn't help but think of my dog Alfalfa Sprout "alfie, alfredo, fonzo" etc and how much i adore spending time with him in the outdoors, especially in the wide open spaces where he can run free. Visiting Hylands Park in Writtle I watch the dogs and owners frolic with their pets and most of the time I really miss my dog but the rest of the time I am quietly wondering how much dog poop is actually in those fields and how much of a nuisance those free roaming dogs are to little toddlers learning to walk in the soft grass and to the wildlife that is trying to live and build lives amongst all the chaos of our pets.
When I lived in Little Rock we the city built and maintained a dog park for both large and little dogs where they were free to run off leash and to interact with each other under the supervision of the owners. There is a whole dog park etiquette that exists in the US dog park system and I know this well having planned many a road trip by location of dog parks. I have visited many in the southern US route from Arkansas to North Carolina and in each I have been impressed with the care and attention the city government or private entity spends on the quality of the park. Dog owners can be really strange people and crammed in one space things dont always go well but the dog park is an amazing solution to containing pets to one area and making it more pet friendly and separating out the human park area and one designated only for mans best friend. When this article was written in 1984 dog parks barely existed in the US if at all in most major metropolitan cities. It wasnt until recently when city governments seriously started setting aside land for pet owners because of the impact that dogs specifically have on urban environments. Now, in most towns, even here in England, you can find dog waste bags and special containers to throw the waste away. And here in the UK, I see more dog waste disposal bins than I see recycling containers.
As a field biologist I studied bird populations on the beaches of Massachussetts. I studied foraging habits, nesting and population studies. One summer I did an entire study on the foraging and roosting habits of migrating shorebird species. There were certain populations of these birds on the American migratory route that were losing weight and not completing their migratory journey south for the winter months. One of the conclusions that I found was that dog owners and dogs walked the beaches at peak foraging times, early mornings and at dusk, and they would walk straight though large gatherings of birds trying to feed. Everytime they would feed and a dog would come by they would have to lift and fly and would take minutes to resettle only to be disturbed again. Dogs of course werent the only culprit but they were a large part of the problem. The overlap of our human habitat and wildlife is growing daily and it was virtually impossible to keep dogs off the beach. We did mitigate the problem by offering alternative sites for dog walking and asking for them to walk at different times of day. I studied habitat issues and birds for several years and had to deal with a lot of dog problems and as a dog owner myself I am very sympathetic to owners' need for space and places to take their beloved pets. If we give alternatives and come up with solution I believe we can all co exist and doggone it, all get a long.
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