Baltimore Dog Owners Barking Mad at City

by Dr. Chris

November 15, 2010 Recently Baltimore approved a law that set up dog leash violation fines and created a plan for creating more legal pet parks and extended hours when dogs could play in existing parks. But many dog owners say the city has not established more dog parks, and seems to only want to punish dog owners.

An animal lover who is also a lawyer, Robert E. Joyce, is taking making a legal case that since the city of Baltimore hasn't kept up its end of the bargain with the dog parks, the rest of the law shouldn't apply either.

The situation exposes the frustration of dog owners in a city with just three legal areas for dog.

An original leash law existed for many years, but not many people were aware of it until the started getting $1,000 fines.

But dog owners cheered when the City Council reduced the fines and were even more encouraged when shortly thereafter, parks officials began meeting with residents to talk about making room for dogs in four city parks.

Though dog park creation is a hot-button issue in cities across the country it seems a battle is always under way somewhere. Recreation and parks director Gregory Bayor, on the job since April, says despite the public's perception, he's in favor of dog parks and is now laying the base to potentially make fenced-in dog areas in Patterson and Riverside parks.

Bayor would like to start at Patterson and Riverside parks and construct very bare-bones dog areas not much more than a fenced-in spot, basically a corral.

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