As more residents and their pets take to the trails this summer, Summit County Animal Control officers are trying to make sure dogs remain leashed so the trails are safe for everyone.
According to Summit County Personnel Director and head of Animal Control Brian Bellamy, officers will be on various trails throughout Summit County and Park City during the summer to remind residents that no matter how nice or well behaved their dog is, it has to be leashed.
“We want to get ahead of the curve and start enforcing the leash ordinance before it gets even nicer out and more people begin walking their dogs on the trails,” Bellamy said. “Our goal is to educate the public, not be mean or get anyone into trouble.”
Bellamy said that as long as residents are “decent about it,” the officers will simply remind people about the ordinance and ask them to leash their dogs. Officers will carry extra leashes in case someone does not have one with them.
“Everyone thinks their dog is the best, but sometimes dogs can get too excited or playful and jump up on someone and hurt them,” he said. “If it is in your yard, we don’t care, but on a public trail, they just have to be leashed.”
As part of the county’s renewed effort to remind residents of the leash ordinance, Snyderville Basin Recreation District will post additional signs marking trails as “on-leash” areas.
The most common phone call that animal control receives, according to Bellamy, is from trail-users reporting multiple dogs playing with each other off-leash and knocking someone over.
“We have had problems in Round Valley of a dog biting someone, so things do happen if dogs are off-leash,” he said. “We don’t want people to be scared of our officers, they just need to know we are trying to keep the trails safe. We have dog parks where residents can play fetch with their dogs and have them off-leash.”
On Tuesday, animal control officers went to Willow Creek Park and encountered three dogs that were off the leash. The dog owners complied with the officer’s request to leash the dogs.
Bellamy added that Animal Control will announce where their officers will be ahead of time so that residents will be in compliance with the leash ordinance.