In a recent Patch article entitled Dream Dog Park Contest. We must ask ourselves a few things; are these dog parks paid for with tax payers money? Are these parks counted as Municipal Open Space or Parkland in planning elements?
These Parks are for Dogs and their owners, not all of us. They also take up, consume additional areas within our park systems.
Most State and National Parks allow pets, restricting them in certain places or asking that the owner keep the dog on a leash and pick-up after the animals waste.
At Crater Lake for example in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, many dog owners do not clean-up after their pets, keep their dogs on leashes or curtail their barking.
In Israel dog owners must register their pet's DNA; any waste found in public places, bring fines and more to the dog owner. With all the latitude already given to pet owners in the USA, DNA registration for pets would be more appropriate in a social sense than dog parks, for the simple reason parks are already defacto dog parks. If we are going to have these dog parks, then dogs should be restricted more in other park systems where appropriate; in wildlife areas or historical landscapes.
Who also pays for the removal of the dog waste within the dog park? Imagine a hot humid summer day with barrels fulls of dog waste, stinking in the sun, that's a dog park.
With such a large pet industry as part of our economy we need the DNA element not the "dog park"
