Set The Dogs Free

The final battle in the misguided war against unleashed dogs in city parks took the form of a public hearing in Manhattan before the Parks Department last week. Now, those concerned must wait to learn if the city will formally amend its leash laws to allow dogs to run and socialize without hindrance during off-peak hours.
We strongly urge the Parks Department to make the amendment.
New York City dog owners have been informally permitted to unleash their pets in city parks between the hours of 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. during “courtesy hours” for the past 20 years with great success.
Contrary to posing the grave threat to safety and society as alleged in a 2006 lawsuit against the city filed by the Juniper Park Civic Association (JPCA) and later ruled against by the State Supreme Court, unleashed dogs have made this metropolis a better place for everyone.
After a steady decline in recent years, dog bites citywide reached an all-time low in 2006. So too did the percentage of those bites that occurred in city parks.
Unleashed, dogs are able to exercise freely, play with other dogs and, in general, wear themselves out. As any dog trainer will tell you - tired dogs are good dogs.
The city’s own Health Department has said that exercising dogs off-leash provides benefits to both dogs and their owners. Off-leash exercise can help reduce aggressive behavior and calm anxiety in dogs, thus reducing the likelihood of attacks and bites.
Not only do dog owners form bonds of friendship and community that can be so elusive in this city, they also bring traffic to our parks during off hours, making city green spaces safer for everyone. Rather than increasing during in the past two decades, crime in our parks has dramatically declined during that time - thanks in part to the presence of dog owners at night.
At the same time, we recognize that those who oppose unleashed dogs also have a right to the same health and happiness they derive from our parks as the proponents of this initiative.
Since the formal amendment to the existing leash law we support would provide dog owners with solid legal protection to unleash their pets, we also believe it should inspire the city to strictly enforce a zero-tolerance policy for those who would choose to willfully unleash their dogs during non-compliant hours (9 a.m. to 9 p.m).
So that opponents to off-leash provisions can visit city parks with confidence during peak hours, dog owners should face substantial fines that would genuinely deter people from unleashing their pets during those same times.
Dogs should not be punished for human misbehavior by being forbidden to be themselves.
There are no such things as bad dogs - only bad owners.