Trouble in Topeka

A letter to the editor in Friday’s Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal:

Topeka has some nice walking and biking trails around our community that provide us all a chance to get our exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle, including walking our best friends, our dogs, which also benefit from the results.

We have a law that states a dog must be on a leash at all times and be under full control. Most people abide by it. My complaint is that some think they have full control over their leashed pets and will allow them to get close enough to attack an approaching walker if they wanted to do so.

When you ask the owner if the dog will bite, the answer is no, because the owner believes that.

But I am asking that the owner of the dog keep a tighter grip on the leash, and give a little less leash when meeting a fellow walker, so we both can enjoy the walk.

JACK L. FROST, Topeka

How quaint that the reader’s only complaint is that dog owners are giving their flexi-leashes too much play. He doesn’t know how lucky he is. And it is not coincidental that the letter comes from Republican Kansas. As we’ve discussed, the twin centers, ground zero, of off-leash country are liberal Democratic San Francisco, CA and Brooklyn, CA. Someone needs to explain to us just how letting dogs run loose and terrorizing minority groups is a liberal value.

But there’s more, a reader comment that unfortunately must speak for itself because it leaves us speechless:

If you walk at MacLennan Park at the Governor's Mansion, take pepper spray with you. The security out there refuses to enforce the leash law even though the park in inside the city. The security officers say that management doesn't want to make dog owners feel restricted. They advise carrying pepper spray to protect yourself. The problem is, if you have to spray an attacking dog, you may have to protect yourself from the owner as well. It would be so much safer for everyone to enforce the leash law with signs. It would also protect the dogs from each other because sometimes there are dog fights.

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Friday morning just before 8, we observed a white male with a leash draped around his neck following a large white dog down Wellhouse Drive away from the Peninsula.. A couple of minutes later, we observed a white female walking two large leashed dogs heading in the opposite direction from the Peninsula. When she reached the end of Wellhouse Drive, she unleashed the dogs and let them run up the path to the Nethermead.