to leash or not at city parks?

Lax Leash Law Has
Some San Franciscans
At End of Their Rope
Dog Lovers Clash With Others
Over Pooches in Parks;
Corky's Unwanted Suitors
By CHELSEA DEWEESE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 25, 2005; Page A1

SAN FRANCISCO -- An hour into a public meeting this summer in Golden Gate Park, a group of about 40 residents grew restless. When the moderator asked for comments, the room erupted, with some people heatedly calling each other "militants" and "zealots." One woman declared compromise impossible.

The meeting wasn't about gay marriage or the Iraq war. It was a topic far more divisive in this proudly political city: dogs, and how freely they should be able to roam without leashes in the city's 209 parks.

The city's leash law is clear: Dogs aren't allowed to be off the leash except in designated areas. The reality is equally stark: The law is rarely enforced.

That has created a standoff, pitting dog-loving activists against equally adamant proponents of enforcing the leash law. A recent spate of pit-bull attacks has heightened the debate.

At the meeting in Golden Gate Park, the city's Dog Advisory Committee was planning to discuss a potential compromise. It would limit the hours that pooches are allowed off-leash. But the proposal proved so divisive that it was never brought up.

In January, the city's Recreation and Park Commission will consider a different proposal the Dog Advisory Committee recently completed, calling for beefed up enforcement of the leash law. "San Francisco is one of the densest cities in the country," says Amber Evans, the department's interim liaison to the Dog Advisory Committee. "The challenge is how to balance intense demands for these limited resources."

Dogs are a hotly defended constituency here. The most recent city census puts the number of dogs nearly even with the number of children at 120,000, out of a total human population of about 801,000.

Mayor Gavin Newsom says the only political group in the city as powerful as the pro-dog lobby is the pro-children's lobby. With these two groups at odds, he says in an interview, "We'll probably solve the issue of homelessness before we're able to solve the dog issue."

One afternoon at the city's Dolores Park, owners of French bulldogs gathered for their weekly off-leash social event, dubbed "Frenchie Friday." John Silowsky, 37 years old, brought his Boston Terrier, Dewey, out to play with the other small dogs. "Dogs are a part of our family," he says. "It's the same as taking a kid to the playground. And it's good for us because we get outside."

In another nearby park, Belinda Moss, 34, had just pulled nearly a dozen dogs without leashes off her 8-pound Maltese, Corky. A New York transplant, Ms. Moss says she is "shocked" at the lack of enforcement of the leash laws. She worries what her 6-year-old son, Drew, will get into when she takes him to the park. "It seems like people bring their dogs here to evacuate," she says. "It's kind of gross."

Some folks have tried to take the law into their own hands. Several antipooch locals have posted "No Dogs" signs in city parks and chained park gates shut. They claim dog advocates struck back by tearing down the signs and opening chained gates with bolt cutters.

City officials have done little to resolve the fracas. When police in the city's southern Ingleside District issued citations to some San Franciscans for letting their pets roam leashless earlier this year, dog owners howled with protest. So the police backed off, sending an email to residents declaring "the last thing the Police department desires is to get in the middle of an issue that has divided the community." The email's author, Capt. Paul Chignell, declined to comment.

The pet-roaming issue has been handled peacefully elsewhere. In Minneapolis, officials in 2001 created dog play areas, where owners pay an annual fee to run their mutts off-leash in designated locations. In New York City, dogs are supposed to be on a leash at all times, but some parks relax enforcement between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. There are also 35 fenced-off dog runs. Signs advertising "Dog free grass" let park users know where it's safe to sit.

San Francisco's dog fight started in 1997 when the National Park Service, citing conservation issues, limited off-leash use in recreation areas on the city fringes where dog owners had historically let their pups run free. In search of new play areas, many pet owners headed to parks within the city. The influx prompted authorities to propose banning most off-leash dog recreation in 2001. The proposal was enacted in 2002. The fine for breaking the leash law is $32. Failure to pick up after a dog is $320.

The curtailment riled up dog advocates, who banded together to create groups with names like Free Dog! In 2001, more than 1,500 dog owners staged a mass protest against the National Park Service for handing out tickets for off-leash incidents. That same year, canine owners held a "Critical Mutt" rally and converged on City Hall under the banner "Bark now, or forever hold your leash." The pro-dog faction also has its own political action committee: DogPAC, which says it has a 75% success rate in getting dog-friendly candidates into local offices.

"We love our dogs and we love having fun with our dogs," says Sally Stephens, head of the San Francisco Dog Owners Group, or SFDOG, the largest of more than 20 dog-advocacy groups in the area. Ms. Stephens says running without a leash is the only way city dogs like her 12-year-old Border Collie Skates can stay healthy, since many live in cramped apartments.

The dog lovers fought ticketing so aggressively that the National Park Service has since backed off enforcing leash laws on some federal land along the San Francisco waterfront. It has also put together a group representing all interests that is studying the matter. For now, the citywide off-leash ban is largely not enforced.

All of this upsets some advocates of enforcing the leash law. One is Andrea O'Leary, an independent lighting designer. In the mid-1990s, she decided to improve a park in the city's Sunnyside neighborhood. With other volunteers, she spruced up the park with drinking fountains and plants.

Then, Ms. O'Leary says, the dog people came and used the park as a "community dog toilet," scaring children and trashing landscaping. In response, Ms. O'Leary and others have turned up at public meetings to protest the lack of leashes and have lobbied officials to enforce leash laws.

Some dog activists are now trying to reduce the tensions. Since becoming an educational nonprofit in 2002, SFDOG has asked dog owners to exercise "park petiquette," such as cleaning up after them and keeping dogs under voice command at all times. Ms. Stephens says she and other volunteers often post brochures at park entrances that list proper pet behavior. "Not everybody likes a big, wet lick on the face," she says.

Write to Chelsea DeWeese at chelsea.deweese@dowjones.com