Dog Running; Dog Polution; A Jailed Dog Owner

Two East Williamsburg women are turning their love of dogs and running into a career.

Friends Mandy McGowan and Julie Totino founded Brooklyn Dog Runners in September, and so far, business is booming.

Their service is just like a standard dog-walking business, except they run their clients' pooches instead of walking them.

"Running is really healthy exercise for dogs, and it helps them blow off steam," said McGowan, 28, who has two cats but no dog of her own. "They love it."

Read the whole thing in the New York Daily News. Imagine that: the dogs get exercise, on the leash--and the people get exercise too-- just like we were told couldn't happen without the dogs running loose.

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Man's best friend could be one of the environment's worst enemies, according to a new study which says the carbon pawprint of a pet dog is more than double that of a gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle. And that's if they're leashed.

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And see this story, published last Wednesday in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz:

A simple walk with his dog four years ago is not something Vadim Antonevich will soon forget. Antonevich, a prize-winning documentary film maker, is now serving 25 days in jail for walking his dog without a leash.

The story began when Antonevich was stopped on Jerusalem's Emek Refaim street by a municipal inspector. After Antonevich protested the fine, the inspector charged him on the spot with obstructing the work of a municipal inspector, and fined him NIS 1,000. The matter was taken up by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court for municipal matters, where in an expedited judgment at which he was not present, Judge Yael Yitav increased the fine and ordered him to pay NIS 2,580 to the city or serve no less than 25 days in jail.

. . .

Two days before Antonevich was arrested, he submitted a renewed request to the court to hear his case again, arguing that the fine or jail sentence were disproportionate to the infraction he had been charged with. Nevertheless, he was summoned to the police station, where he was told he had to pay the whole fine immediately. When he refused, saying that the matter was still before the court, he was arrested on the spot and was taken, cuffed hand and foot, to the Abu Kabir lock-up. Ten days later, he was taken to Ma'asiyahu prison to serve out his sentence.

Read the whole thing here. As you can see, the first sentence is misleading--this scofflaw was jailed not for letting his dog loose but for mouthing off at the inspector who gave him a ticket. While one might question--as does the reporter--the wisdom of jailing someone where doing so costs the state some six times the amount of the fine, the deterrent value of the sentence, and the headline, should be undeniable. Note also the original amount of the fine--1000 NIS, which is equivalent to $250 U.S. Even at an equivalent cost of living--and it's less than in Jerusalem than it is in New York City--the fine is far greater than the piddling fine imposed, here, when it's imposed at all.