Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 14:20:17 -1000 From: johnsen@eskimo.com (Brian Johnsen) Message-Id: Organization: Tethered Airfoil R&D Pty. Ltd.(C)(R)(TM) CD CASS Subject: Dogs / Magnuson Park, Seattle It's just come to my attention that dog owners in Seattle have petitioned the Parks Department to open up a number of Seattle parks as free run areas for their pets. Hey, as far as most parks go, that's fine if they clean up after themselves. What's torqing my crankshaft is that they want to include Kite Hill in Magnuson Park as a specified dog run area for nine months out of the year. Ken Conrad ( 71561.2331@compuserve.com ) and a number of local area kiters have officially adopted Kite Hill and have made significant improvements to the area. We've tripled the open area available by pulling up Scotch Broom and filling in holes in the turf. Now the dog owners covet all that open space and will appropriate it by force of numbers. There are other areas of the park such as the boat launch, tennis courts, baseball diamonds and soccer fields where leash provisions will still apply in the entire park. The main problem being that few dog owners presently leash thier pets now. Last week over a period of two hours I counted eighteen dogs on Kite Hill, only five of which were leashed. The owners of the leashed animals were all kind enough to pick up after their pets. I observed four of the unleashed dogs dumping with their owners nowhere in sight or distracted. That didn't get cleaned up. I saw three unleashed dogs defecating while their owners watched. That didn't get cleaned up either. There is only one other park in Seattle that is suitable for kiting and dog owners want that for a free run area as well. It seems they are going to get it. -- Bugger all. -- Brian Johnsen johnsen@eskimo.com Seattle, Washington USA = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =