A walk along any trail or through any park will remove any doubt. Whether they’re fancy purebreds or rescued mutts, we are a dog-loving people on the North Shore.
The trouble is that some people love their canines so much, they believe they can do no wrong and, therefore, shouldn’t have to keep them leashed in public.
This entitled attitude leads to many conflicts. Most of them are minor. Some of them are serious. But all of them are completely unnecessary.
We bring you a heartbreaking story this week about Doreen Manuel, whose beloved Yorkie was mauled to death by an off-leash dog on a trail that well marked with warnings that dogs must be leashed. Manuel is speaking up because she’d like to see municipalities actually handing out fines to dog-owners who ignore the rules, which they very rarely do.
We don’t foresee any local governments staffing up to go after the leash-lazy or redeploying officers away from more lucrative parking enforcement, so we humbly and insistently ask the many dog owners of the North Shore – even if yours is a very good boy – to keep them leashed.
Public spaces are, by definition, for everyone to enjoy. Dogs that aren’t under the control of their owners can be unpredictable, annoying, frightening or even dangerous. Yes, even the “friendly” ones.
By being discourteous to others, these dog owners give the rest of them, and dogs generally, a bad name, which is no way to treat man’s best friend.
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