pet connection

Recently, my syndicated column was about the need for designated areas for legal off-leash recreation. Not tiny fenced-in areas so overused the grass can’t even grow, but acres of open space set-asides, like the ones in Richmond, Calif., or the San Diego area:

I’d choose a dedicated off-leash open area to run my dogs in anytime. But I can’t always drive out of town, so I also drive to local places where my retrievers can swim. I go at odd hours, my dogs are friendly, trained and well-socialized, and yes, I clean up after them.

Why should we dog lovers have to skulk around like this? In terms of sheer numbers, we are a larger population than tennis, soccer or softball players, all groups whose needs are recognized and addressed by those who plan public recreation facilities. Our dogs are our chosen form of recreation, and we deserve open space as much as any other group.

Where I live there’s an astonishing river parkway, miles and miles of protected parkland along two rivers, with trails and beaches throughout. It’s illegal to have a dog off-leash on any part of it, and that’s beyond ridiculous. All the dog-lovers here ask is for a 1 percent solution: 40 or 50 acres where it would be legal to walk with our dogs off-leash and allow them to swim in the river.

As usual, any suggestion that I, as a dog-lover and tax-payer, deserve to have my recreational needs addressed brought out the anonymous dog-hating e-mailers, who filled my in-box for the better part of three days. Their points are these:

• Dogs are disgusting. They lick themselves and sniff each others’ butts.
• Dogs are not children, and only children deserve parks.

The first point is so consistently mentioned, and so bizarre, that all I can suggest is that these folks could use some therapy to help them overcome their genitalia obsession.

The second, though, is just crap. I don’t think dogs are children. I think dogs are dogs, and that’s why they need off-leash recreation. Dogs who get regular heart-thumping exercise — which you cannot get being walked on a leash — have fewer behavior and obesity-related health problems. And they’re happiest when being dogs — running, playing, following scents and enjoying the outdoors.

But I know the dog-haters don’t care about the health and happiness of my dogs, so I’m not going to make that case with them. Dog-lovers deserve open space set asides because we’re people, not because we think dogs are children. And we’re people who choose to enjoy our recreational time hiking off-leash with our dogs. As members of the community, and as tax-payers who support all common-good amenities, we deserve having our recreational choices supported by the goverments who work for us, overseeing the public lands we own in common.

Usually, I don’t answer hate mail. But one person went on so much about the butt-sniffing that I really did write back and suggest she might consider therapy. She immediately shot back out that I didn’t need a dog to exercise, and that I was a typical “dog freak” and “idiot” to think that I did.

It’s true that I don’t need a dog to exercise. People don’t need bikes, tennis rackets, soccer fields, running trails, kayaks, skiis … the list is endless, and yet people who do enjoy specific types of reaction have public facilities to play in.

That’s all I’m asking for our dogs. A small part of parklands where we can get out, hike, throw a ball and enjoy. Dog-haters, go elsewhere. This land is my land, too.