Dogs on the Ballfields

From Winston Smith:

I sent this email to info@prospectpark.org

I hope I get a response

This morning at 8 am I met some friends at Grand Army Plaza to do some jogging in Prospect Park. Not wanting to get separated we decided to run on the paths around the fields. We stayed on the road past the Long Meadow. There were hundreds of off leash dogs there. It would have been impossible to jog around that path and it would have been inappropriate on our part. This was a place for off leash dogs, nothing else.

So we jogged over the the ball fields were dogs are not allowed. This was a problem, there were about 50 dogs on the ballfields and the paths that surround them. About half of them were off leash, many were on leashes that were well over 10 feet long.

There are ample signs about leashes and dogs on the ballfields, but so many dog owners thing the rules do not apply to them. Many dogs were running across the path with no owner is sight. Dogs were also allowed to defecate on the grass. Later children will play sports on that same grass. Grasping it with a plastic bag is not good enough if a hour later people are going to play or picnic on that same spot.

Who is responsible for enforcing the leash law in Prospect Park?

Thank you in advance

Winston Smith

In fact, the paths around the grassy area are not part of the designated off-leash area. And, nothing in the off-leash rules makes these off-leash areas the exclusive domain of unleashed dogs during off-leash hours. So on both counts, you should have been able to jog there during off-leash hours.

Winston, how much more of a proof do you need that the behavior of dog owners who let their pets loose has nothing to do with their not being sufficiently "educated", and everything to do with their belief that letting their dogs loose whenever and wherever they want is an entitlement, no matter what its effect on anyone else?