Finding space for Fido
Aug 10, 2009
by Dan Van Ness
This is not the story about a violent crime or even school bullying. But it concerns a problem contributing to the quality of life of people in a neighborhood, and of the dogs that some of them own.
Dog owners in the Kingfield neighbourhood of Minneapolis want a place for their pets to run free. While there is no park in their district that allows this, some of them unleash their dogs anyhow.
Enter the Park District police. They enforce the leash law by ticketing the owners, resulting in a "hefty fine".
It's a quality of life problem. Some residents want to be able to take their little kids to the park without worrying about them being scared by big dogs running around. Others don't like the poop that gets left behind. Still others feel their pets are well-behaved and that there should be some place they can take them where they don't need to be tethered.
It's the kind of problem bound to make some residents feel that it is not really their neighbourhood park.
The story, recounted in the Southwest Journal, is incomplete. But it begins with a restorative process.
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