An anonymous contributor wrote:
Hi just thought your readers might want to know animal control officers are actively ticketing for off leash violations at Wallingford Park today, and say they are going to step up their presence there due to complaints about off-leash dogs.
Said anonymous contributor contributed said anonymous tip earlier this week, so it’s no longer today, but still worth being aware of.
I was curious what about the fine for getting caught playing catch with your dog in the park, so I checked with Seattle Animal Shelter Fees & Fines page, where I found a few eyebrow-raisers:
OK, so it’s $54 for allowing your animal off-leash ($109 for the second offense, we learn further down the page), but that only applies to dogs, ferrets, iguanas and parrots, it seems. It does not apply to cats or pigeons. The “cats” bit isn’t a surprise, of course (I find it a bit weird to see cats out on a leash), but I was surprised to see “pigeon” called out. You can find more info on rules and regulations regarding pet at pet publications online, while if you have a pet and you’re off on holiday and unable to take your pet, then you must plan ahead and find a kennel or cattery, so your pet is always protected.
I suppose this dates back to when the pigeon keeping was a more common hobby. I wondered whether this has been completely supplanted by urban chicken farming, but no, the Sno-King Pigeon Racing Club lives on, and there was at least some chatter recently on the Pigeon.biz board about setting up a coop in Seattle.
I’m sure there are a few readers who will also be interested to see that you can get fined not just for failing to clean up after your dog, but merely for failing to have the “equipment” on hand to do so:
As we fight the proliferation of plastic in society, even passing a “plastic bag ban” here in Seattle, it has always amazed me that, at the same time, we mandate that every bowel movement by a dog must be individually wrapped. Whoever invents a better way to solve this will be a millionaire.
About time. Dog owners are welcome to use the off-leash area at Woodland Park rather than terrorizing legitimate park users and ripping up the field at Wallingford Playfield.
As for dog waste, maybe a something like a horse poop catcher can become the hottest fashion accessory for one’s dog?
Not parking, not transit, not bakeries, not even drug stores; the real need in Wallingford is a dog run within a short walk of Wallingford Ave & 45th. HALA up-zones should stop until that’s addressed.
Interesting. Thanks for the info as well as the ticket cost. I wihs they ( animal Control) would make random drive bys in neighborhoods. Hope you find some mor enew business news soon, Oh yes, an dhow about th eupdate on the homeless encampment moving to Wallingford? Is this a done deal yet?
I think the fee schedule is fine. Good for Animal Control for addressing the unlawful behavior of some dog owners that won’t get the message any other way. And salutes to our many responsible dog-owning neighbors who abide by the leash laws…and who use biodegradable bags when picking up their pet waste. Thank you!
I think we sometimes forget that gov’t isn’t free. We are paying someone like probably $80K/year (or more including benefits and pension) to go pass out these fines. That’s a lot of $54 fines they have to write to justify their existence. In my experience, the vast majority of pet owners are very responsible. And I’m not convinced the tiny risk of a fine has any impact on the rest.
The fine is not the important thing. Getting the message out that people shouldn’t run dogs on the playfields is the purpose of the enforcement. I think most people who run dogs on the fiend don’t know the damage the do and would stop if they were told. The cost of enforcement is probably much less than the cost and disruption of restoring the grass.
You have many interesting opinions. They ( Wallyhood) has asked for volunteer editors. Ever thought of applying?
A more efficient way of doing this is to raise the fine so much that so few would violate it, therefore you need very very few enforcers.
For example, set the law to jail the owner 6 month in prison and the dog killed if off leash illegally. Enforce it a couple of times and you’d rarely need more enforcement.
That would never happen though, since people in general only want punishment to be just as opposed to be deterrence.
That’s kind of the capital punishment argument. And yet…
My point rather is that we don’t need a law for everything, and not every law needs to be enforced. Once you create government, it has a vested interest in perpetuating itself, which is not always the best for aggregate welfare of society.
We don’t need a law for everything, because there are cultural norms for everything, right? The laws come up where that social fabric isn’t holding the load – as it clearly has not here, resulting in turf damage and other issues. The causes lie in a grey area between poorly defined social norms and minor sociopathy. The law provides a sort of scaffold over which we might hope the community will grow a more robust social order.
I have a bad feeling about laws that aren’t (reliably) enforced. That can be a way to punish people for doing things that aren’t illegal, by busting them for something everyone else can do.
There are many many issues that are very difficult to enforce reliably. Majority of the traffic laws are like that right now. Drunk driving, jaywalking, and speeding all have very low chances of getting caught, and laws/social norms are all formed differently for them. Drunk driving is a case of intentionally implementing severe punishment as a deterrence. Jaywalking is often a tolerated behavior that’s illegal in name only. Speeding is something we all feel OK to be busted while knowing many many others are doing the same thing without getting caught, but we probably don’t feel the same for jaywalking.
It’s not true at all that government has a vested interest in perpetuating itself. Government isn’t a person with self interest. It’s a composite entity. The individuals within the government that have vested interest to perpetuate their own jobs are not necessarily decision makers, and it’s not always in the decision makers’ best interest to maintain certain functions.
The issue you talk about isn’t even a government one. Whoever in the family in charge of buying grocery would have a vested interest to always choose food of personal liking as opposed to the aggregate welfare of the family. Does that mean the person get to dictate what the whole family eat? Not necessary, because it depends on how power and decision making is structured within the family.
So many things related to letting your dog run off-leash anywhere other than an off-leash area are ignored or just not known by some dog owners. And it’s not just the health hazards of feces that’s not picked up or the damage to professionally maintained public playfields and tennis courts.
If you let your dog run loose where young children can play at a supervised distance from their parent or guardian, a dog can feel threatened by a child running up to them or chasing them so the dogs natural instinct is to defend itself – that could have devastating consequences if the parent or guardian can’t make it to their child in time..
My partner and I have two Belgian Malinois which are very protective of their dads and if a loose dog approaches, our dogs switch to high alert and are “on guard”. They are trained and always leashed and if necessary, muzzled. But if a loose dog comes running at them (us), our dogs can inflict serious injury if provoked. And the owner of the loose dog would have no legal recourse for damages our dogs cause. And it’s not just our dogs. When a dog is leashed, it can become “leash aggressive” very easily and quickly – often times with no warning – if another loose dog approaches (even an adult or child).
If an owner allows their dog to run loose in any public area and their dog bites another dog or human, the owner is automatically held liable for any damages. Medical most certainly and punitive if the attack is severe.
And lastly, it’s not just a “fine” if you’re ticketed. It’s a mark against your dog and the city keeps records of infractions and incidents. If a loose dog causes any kind of injury – big or small – and gets three strikes, that dog can be euthanized. And the fines can be extremely expensive.
And I can’t count how many times when my partner and I have asked owners to leash their dogs, their answer is always the same and delivered in a rude and sarcastic tone; “You can’t tell me what to do!”.
One-time off-leash offender here (with my 28-lb. doodle at Good Shepherd Center — we’ll pull up our hoodies and run if we ever see Animal Control there again!). Always pick up her poop, always carry bags and frequently pick up poop that other dog owners have left. (Not to mention fishing same out of my yard waste or recycling.) But, gosh, I wish that COLA or the City could find a way to put in a small-dog off-leash area somewhere more central than Golden Gardens or Magnuson! The Woodland Park OLA is full of huge dogs, many of whom are there with dog-walkers who seem to immediately need to get on their phones. It’s not a fun place for a small to medium-sized dog to play.
About the being equipped–think that part of the law was to address people like the dog walker my husband met in front of our house. Since he was watching the entire time, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a kleenex and picked up the poop (fortunately for her, she had a small dog). That is someone who had no intention of scooping unless she happened to be closely observed; hence the requirement that walkers be prepared.
As to bags, the original pooper scooper was like a mini-version of those sweeper and long-handled pans sometimes used for sidewalk cleanup. Bag was optional. Don’t believe there’s a requirement that each poop be individually wrapped; you’re welcome to dedicate a bucket to the purpose.
Meanwhile, I still subscribe to newspaper delivery; I call the Seattle Times subscription daily poop bag delivery with free newspaper inside.
As committed environmentalists we discourage our Labrador from going to the bathroom on walkies. She should appreciate nature like we do: by keeping it pristine.
As far as “shrink-wrapping” dog poo, there is nothing that says that the poo be wrapped in plastic. Alternative materials such as bio-bags and/or paper lunchbags are a more environmentally-friendly choice. There is also nothing that prohibits the owner from taking their pet’s gifts home for disposal in their toilet, which would help keep countless pounds of fecal matter out of our landfill.
Also, please understand that it is far better to take your pet’s poo home with you for disposal. The trash cans at the parks are often buried in fecal matter, which is unfair (and not safe) to park employees and which stink to high heaven in the summer.
BTW – COLA and the City reached agreement in the 1990s that if the City provided some off-leash areas, folks would stop running dogs illegally in the playfields and playgrounds. We have very limited public open space, there will never be enough to serve everyone’s needs for every use. OLAs are just another example – use the ones that have been provided and agreed to. Not perfect, but better than nothing. That was the agreement made back when and was likely the system that was in place when one decided to own a dog.
An “anonymous contributor”? This sounds like a grumpy neighbor trying to scare people.
There are several realities being ignored here in the comments:
1) There are at least 43% more dogs than children in Seattle (source: Seattle Magazine ‘Dog Obsession’) Yet the city only designates 28 out of 6200 acres of park land (0.5%) for off-leash (source: ‘People, Dogs, and Parks Strategy’). This is by no means “plenty”. The result is off-leash areas that are sparse, extremely over-used and sometimes dangerous for dogs and owners, as others have noted.
2) Much more damage is done to the field by one week of soccer camp and ultimate frisbee than is ever done by dogs. Just look at the grass wear patterns — they directly follow the field stripes. Perhaps we should insist on leashing and ticketing our children too??
3) The trash left by middle school kids (candy wrappers, drink bottles) far exceeds the poop or poop bags left by pet owners on any given day.
The point here is not to demonize the kids or other folks that use the park — it’s to put the impacts of all users in perspective. I personally have both a dog and a child, and believe they can both safely and respectfully use the playfield WITH proper supervision. If you see a neighbor being negligent about cleaning up poop or trash or digging up the field, then say something. But to demonize one population simply because you have no pet is ignorant. Nobody owns this neighborhood — we ALL do!
Animal Control ticketers made another appearance at Wallingford Playfield on Friday morning 12/8. Just an FYI.
There are too few OLAs for the community at a time when the city is also trying to discourage car use. And with Wallingford Playfield now doubling as HIMS’s athletic field there are multiple new use cases that have an impact on the grass field here. I think a reasonable compromise would be to designate small OLA time windows at areas of Meridian Park and Wallingford Playfield. An hour in the morning after school has started, and an hour in the evening around dusk, with off-leash use prohibited at other times.