Watch the Ice?

At about 2:20pm today, one of our correspondents saw 5 unleashed dogs on the Nethermead meadow. The owners were throwing balls and sticks for their pets, as if they knew nothing would be done to stop them. The correspondent had seen a P.E.P. vehicle parked next to the lake (less than 500 yards to the south), so he went back to alert the officer. The P.E.P. officer seemed very sympathetic, but told our correspondent that he couldn't leave his post next to the lake (he was watching for anyone trying to walk on the ice). He said he would call it in to his commander to see if they could send another vehicle. Our correspondent went back a few minutes later and was told that there were no officers available in the borough, so that nothing would be done about the dogs. The officer asked if the correspondent ever called 311 when he had problems with off-leash dogs. The correspondent responded that he had given up doing that because the 311 operator never sent any patrol cars. As the correspondent observed to us, what good is letting PEP know at all when complaining directly to a PEP officer who was only 30 seconds away from 5 scofflaws accomplishes nothing.

Our correspondent passed another 4 unleashed dogs on the Long Meadow at around 2:45pm

Another correspondent reports seeing a large white dog fetching sticks on the Peninsula meadow around 2 P.M. Friday. The correspondent alerted a PEP officer maybe 100 feet away, Officer Torres, who was also watching the ice near the lake. Officer Torres seemed very interested. and turned his car towards to drive the distance. The correspondent didn't stick around to see what happened next.

Another CP Coyote on the Loose; Park Slope Lays An Egg

As reported in the Gothamistz: "I walk my dog there at least twice every day and had heard from other dog owners that police were warning people to keep their dogs on leash at night because of a coyote."

Um, maybe they should always keep their dogs leashed. Maybe this is just another reason why permitting dogs to be loose in the parks is a really dumb idea.

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Someone, evidently incensed by dogs barking at a Park Slope dog run, has been pelting the responsible parties with eggs. We didn't post anything at first, but now it seems that at least some of the barking is at night after the dog run is closed. (Hat tip to Datnioides.) No surprise there: the dog run users presumably are the same people who let their dogs loose in Prospect Park, often illegally. And why is there both a dog run and effectively unlimited off-leash in the park?

Stray Dogs

See this report of a boy mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs in Canada. Closer to home, see reports here of a pack of now-feral beagles, abandoned by hunters, that are terrorizing residents of eastern Long Island. Some people forget, or want to forget--dogs, even cute ones, are dogs.

Prospect Park

More catch-up

Jan. 15.

You'd think that by now the PEP dopes would have it figured out. Guess not. Went into the park at 10am and there were still plenty of unleashed dogs. Between 10am and 4pm I saw a total of 12 unleashed dogs on the Long Meadow, Ravine, Payne Hill, Lullwater and Peninsula. Early on I saw Marcia coming out of the woods at Sullivan Hill with her two unleashed rat terriers. As soon as she saw me take out my camera she began to leash the dogs. While I was still recording she yelled, "Didn't get what you wanted? Better luck next time?"

Dec. 27. At 1:10 P.M. a DOPR worker warned a 22-year-old white woman with wide sunglasses, long dark brown hair, wearing dark black velvet fur coat, who had a pit bull, mostly white with brown spots, unleashed above the Maryland monument. She waved the leash defiantly in the worker's face. About ten minutes later she had her dog off-leash on the Nethermead, and rushed to leash it when she saw a PEP car. The license plate number on the PEP car was M- 22365. The car stopped next to her but instead of issuing a ticket only gave her a card with off-leash rules.

About five minutes before, an overweight middle-aged white male with a salt and pepper thin mustache and hair parked his Chevrolet pickup with New York plates, license plate number EWR-3179, illegally on Center Drive outside the Quaker cemetery main gate, asked the worker about his lost dog.

January 6 unleashed dogs:

3:45PM: 5, Nethermead Meadow
4:45PM: 3, Long Meadow

All dog owners were Caucasian.

And the anti-leash advocates, particularly FIDO, will invariably tell you that they carefully clean up after their pets during off-leash hours. Many do. The question is what they do with the waste. Here are two answers' the pictures were taken in mid-December.

Dogs in Stores; More Prospect Park Updates

It started the day I tripped on a dog’s tail while leaving the dressing room at the Banana Republic at 86th and Broadway. The tail, an ordinary brown one, was sticking out of the dressing room next door. I never did see the dog’s body or the master of the animal, who was, presumably, deciding whether to buy just the black T-shirt, or the red one as well.

Animals are joining the ranks of small, bored children who must accompany their grown-ups just about everyplace. Can’t tie up my kid on a leash outside, so why should I do it to my dog?

In the two years since I tripped on the tail, dogs seem to be appearing all over the place. The managers of the Gap informed me at every store where I inquired that “the corporate policy is to allow dogs in our stores.” This was confirmed recently by a customer relations representative, who added that dogs were allowed into Gap stores as long as the leasing agent of the store permitted it and no other customer objected to the dog.

Read the rest here

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Yesterday we blogged a forum about a supposed PEP ticket blitz on January 11 aimed at dog owners who were abusing the 9 A.M. off-leash cutoff. Maybe. Here's a report sent to us on January 14:

Nothing seems to have changed with regard to enforcing the leash law in Prospect Park. No matter what day of the week, time of day or location within the park, I am confronted by strange, unleashed dogs. Park Enforcement Patrol officers are little to no help and I am now certain that they are all a bunch of dopes. For example:

On January 9th, between the hours of 11am and 2pm I came across a total of 9 unleashed dogs on the Long Meadow, the "Snow Bowl" (between Tennis and Picnic Houses), Rick's Place, Lookout Hill and Breeze Hill. On Breeze Hill the two guys with the five bergamasco sheepdogs were using the grass as their personal dog run. These are the guys whose dogs ran over to me barking and I used my bike as a shield. I saw a PEP patrol car near the wellhouse and told the officer of my continuing issue with these guys. He said, "Good, because I need to write some tickets today." I mentioned that he had missed at least seven unleashed dogs. I also pointed out that I've witnessed on numerous occasions (even that day) dog owners leashing their dogs when they see the patrol car coming, then unleashing as it leaves. I suggested that, if they were serious about catching off-leash scofflaws, that they patrol undercover.

A short while later, and only about 2 hundred yards from where I spoke to the officer, there were 2 more unleashed dogs on the Nethermead Meadow.

[On Jan. 10] these folks where running their dogs offleash in the Lullwater, which is never permitted. As soon as they saw me taking out my camera, they leashed their dogs. I suspect that as soon as I was out of sight, they unleashed them again.

This was really galling. I was walking across the Nethermead Meadow with a friend at about 4pm, yesterday [Jan. 13]. Suddenly, an unleashed pitbull came charging at us, barking. I pointed my tripod legs into the dogs face, ready to jab it when I heard the owner calling from behind us. The dog backed off, but there were a total of three pitbulls now running on the meadow (there was also a fourth dog unleashed, but the owner seemed nervous, quickly leashed her small dog and left. While the three dogs were running around an NYPD patrol car stopped at the edge of the meadow, flashed its light and siren. The dog owners leashed their pitbulls and the police sped off. As soon as the patrol car was gone, they unleashed their dogs again.

It gets better.

On that same day, I spotted an unmarked Parks Enforcement Patrol vehicle sitting next to the lake near the Wellhouse. While I was on the Peninsula I noticed a dog owner throwing a ball to his unleashed dog on the Peninsula Meadow. This was in full view of the PEP officer. The officer ignored the scofflaw. As that dog owner was leaving the meadow, a second dog owner came onto the meadow with her unleashed dog (her dog had also been unleashed as she walked down Wellhouse Drive). She continued across the meadow and into the woods with her dog still unleashed. I knew the officer was watching her and, I was so angry, I went over to his car to ask why he wasn't giving her a ticket. As I got closer to his car, he started to move and drove out onto the Peninsula, presumably, to give her a ticket. I followed after him to see what would happen. As I expected, she was giving him some cockamamie story about how she didn't know the rules and that it was too dangerous to bring her dog into the park at night. Officer Ortiz either accepted her outright lie or couldn't be bothered to write a ticket, either way, this woman now knows that there is little or no reason to ever leash her dog. I'll make sure to post her photo and video next time I see her with her unleashed dog.

PP "Ticket Blitz"; Carroll Park; San Francisco; Rabid Raccoons in CP

According to the FIDO website,

In response to repeated complaints to the 311 system; City Parks Department has sent forth its enforcement arm to ticket anyone off-leash, beginning at 9:01 am! This is a city-wide crack down in all parks, not just Prospect Park. Dogs off-leash at improper hours and dog owners not cleaning up after their dogs are the priority of the day.

As the only park user group reluctant to leave the park, no matter that it's twenty degrees out, dog owners been accustomed to the "courtesy hoot" from enforcement vehicles, meaning leash up, everyone. Hope this still happens. Peninsula and probably the Nethermead are fair game as well so keep an eye on the time. Tickets have been issued.

As we've pointed out before, owners with illegally unleashed dogs deserve no "courtesy hoot". When they get one, instead of the ticket they should get, they simply unleash their dogs when the officer has left the scene. This item (apparently dating from Jan. 11) unleashed the usual anti-leash blather on the Brooklynian forum.

Meanwhile, probably a subset of the same people are flouting the law in Carroll Gardens. Hat-tip to Winston and Christina.

More here.

Here's a long article in last week's San Francisco Weekly about increased enforcement of the leash law, and the resulting conflict with the off-leash scofflaws, triggered by the mauling of an heiress by four off-leash dogs.

And here's an ABC News report about rabid raccoons in Central Park, particularly the north end which is a prime area for illegal off-leash activity. "Dog owners are also being advised to keep their animals leashed and away from possible contact with raccoons and other wild animals."

Prospect Park This Past Saturday

We haven't posted much of anything recently. Here is the first of several catch up posts. From our correspondent:

The boldness of the dog owners in Prospect Park on Saturday was infuriating. At noon there were 10 unleashed dogs on the Long Meadow. I encountered off-leash dogs everywhere I went in the park between 12pm and 2pm. I have stopped going into the park before 9am because the dog problem was so bad, but now it doesn't seem to matter; people act as if they are immune to tickets. I stopped to talk to a PEP officer sitting in a car next to the rink. Her name was Maxine and I asked her why there were so many dogs off the leash and why nothing was being done. She told me that PEP is undermanned because they were hit with layoffs (as if they ever had enough officers). Also, she couldn't do anything that day because she was instructed to watch the lake to make sure nobody tried to walk on the ice. [We've heard that excuse before].

These videos were taken at noon on the Long Meadow.

These geniuses broke the fence protecting an area that had been recently reseeded and planted. They decided to make it into their private dog park.



This video was taken around 2:15 on the Peninsula.



This couple were running their dog at the Nethermead Meadow at 2:50pm. When they saw me with my camera, they leashed their dog. I'm sure they unleashed the dog as soon as I was out of sight.