Florida Dogs

An item we just picked up: Shell Key Preserve, which had been the only county-managed preserve in Florida to permit dogs (at all) or open drinking, now bars both, according to this report in the October 3, 2007 St. Petersburg Times. Will Davis, director of the county’s environmental management program, explained why the ban was proposed: "It's a serious problem because one dog running through a nesting colony on one day has the potential to destroy the colony."

One wonders what the NYC DOPR's thinking was in opening the peninsula and especially the peninsula woods, both part of the Prospect Park preserve, to unleashed dogs.

It also seems that unleashed dogs are barred, all the times, in Florida state parks. § 62D-2.014(13)(b) 1. of the Florida Administrative Code states: “All pets must be confined, leashed or otherwise under the physical control of a person at all times. Leashes may not exceed six feet in length.”. This is physical control, not verbal “control” of the type now permitted in NYC parks during “off-leash” hours.

In future posts we’ll examine how other states deal with this.