On the fringe of the ongoing argument about a dog park, where many Parkites probably want it to stay, sits the problem that people here don’t want to talk about too much: loose dogs are a menace, no matter if the owner says they are behaved.
The loose-dog debate, an annual affair in Park City, it seems, usually starts around this time, as Parkites head onto the trails and into the open spaces and the neighborhoods with their pets after the long winter.
At the same time, the authorities usually start their crackdown on leash-less dogs. They warn people, hand out leashes to those with loose dogs and, on a rare occasion, ticket people for letting their dogs roam free. Local laws require dogs to be on leashes on public property, trails included.
Everyone here knows the danger of someone being mauled is as great in Park City as it is anywhere else. On Main Street and Swede Alley, dogs are seen rummaging through the trash and fighting for scraps of food. In surrounding Old Town they have the run of the neighborhood and on the trails they are rarely kept on leashes.
The Park City Council this week, after two uproarious, well-attended meetings, decided not to pursue a controversial dog park on the eastern edge of the city, agreeing with neighbors that the site was not the best spot. City Hall staffers plan to consider an alternate location, perhaps at Quinn’s Junction.
The talks about the dog park have important ramifications for leash laws, we believe. Once a dog park is built in the city, and we expect that will happen quickly after an alternative site is picked, the authorities — the Police Department and Animal Control, mainly — must vigorously enforce the city’s leash laws.
The longtime lax enforcement should not be tolerated now, without a dog park, and will be even less appropriate if one opens. If the park is built, the excuse that there is nowhere to play with a dog off a leash will sound as foolish as well-worn statements from dog owners that their pets are always under their control when they are off a leash.