In addition to this, I have also been in direct communication with various individual park directors regarding various other pet related problems including: Dog at large, dogs behaving threateningly towards people, pooping with failure to scoop, dogs harassing wildife, etc...
Anyway, here is the letter. Note that a few details have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent!
"
XYZ Blvd
Tallahassee,
Florida 32399
RE: Dogs in State Park Campgrounds
January 10, 2011
Dear Mr. Director,
I am writing to inform you of
a growing problem in your state park campgrounds. First, let me say how much I enjoy the
Florida state park system. Our State Park system is truly something for all
Florida residents to be proud of! It is
one of the primary reasons I decided to relocate myself and my business to
Florida from New Jersey 3 years ago.
Your staff has always been polite and helpful.
I am a volunteer activity leader for the XYZ Chapter of the Trail Association and I organize and lead
group hikes in the Northeastern Florida area.
I lead a group hike of 46 new hikers at Little Talbot Island this past
Saturday, January 7th.
Everyone enjoyed the hike and you have many new State Park
enthusiasts! Additionally, this
activity brought hundreds of dollars into the park coffers and increased park
attendance significantly. I have also
lead group hikes at O’Leno SP, Washington Oaks Gardens SP, Torreya SP, Suwanee
River SP, and many other locations. I
also assist is work hikes maintaining the Florida Trail and I participated in a
work hike at Gold Head Branch SP this past fall.
One of our charters is to
promote outdoor activities in the state of Florida: Hiking, Biking, Bird Watching, Camping, etc…
for a variety of reasons not the least being that this is a very challenging
fiscal environment and we are facing a “use it or lose it” scenario in most of
our natural areas.
I was also a registered
camper at Little Talbot that weekend.
That is a SPECTACULAR campground… truly a world class destination!
So, imagine my dismay when I
returned to my campsite this past Saturday to find the campground swamped in
barking dog noise. A camper in site #29
had left their dog alone in their pop-up unit and the animal was screeching and
yelping constantly and in a most offensive manner. The noise was loud enough to be clearly heard
throughout the campground. I notified park rangers who were able to
locate the owner and demand that he return and quiet the dog. However, it took 2.5 hours for the individual
to return and do so, therefore nearly all the campers were subject to loud,
offensive and useless noise pollution for almost the entire afternoon! Clearly, other campers were agitated…
walking over to the campsite looking for the owner, etc… The peace was
destroyed in a most profound way.
Unfortunately, this is not
the first time I have encountered an issue similar to the one described above. I stayed in St. George Island SP over
Christmas holiday and the situation was a bit similar. The campground was full of dogs, several of
them over-stimulated by the surroundings and unable to refrain from barking at
anyone in the vicinity. In that
situation, no one dog or dog owner was a true nuisance, but loud barking could
be heard throughout the campground more often than not due to the sheer number
of dogs present. One of your rangers
referred to it as “dog city”.
Mr. Director, this is a serious problem that
needs to be solved. Again, your rangers
at Little Talbot were pro-active in locating the owner and ultimately resolving
the problem but I am concerned that the problem erupted in the first place. I understand that you want to accommodate as
many folks as possible, but each of these troublemakers is going to drive away
many, possibly dozens, of others. If
this problem is allowed to continue, I believe it would be a disaster for the
State Park System. Most people find loud
barking offensive and the parks NEED to be a place people want to go. I was crushed this past Saturday when I
realized that much of the good I had sacrificed for that morning was offset in
a negative way by an irresponsible dog owner.
(a) It shall be the policy of the
state to conserve and protect its natural resources and scenic beauty. Adequate
provision shall be made by law for the abatement of air and water pollution and
of excessive and unnecessary noise
and for the conservation and protection of natural resources”
Clearly, none of this noise
pollution was useful or necessary. These
irresponsible dog owners are destroying the natural environment as well as
violating other camper’s right to peaceful use of the space they have paid for. Do all campers need a loud alarm to go off
whenever someone walks down a park road or leaves their pet alone in their
camping unit? Further, the World Health
Organization has determined that repetitive loud noises, such as barking dog
noises, are a full blown threat to human health. A barking dog can generate noise in excess of
105 decibels, loud enough to damage hearing!
With that said, I insist that
the park service do more to preserve the peace within the State Park
system. Bringing any animal into a state
park is a guest privilege, not a right. I
recommend any or all of the following:
-
Sternly remind all dog owners
of their responsibilities. If their dog
is driven into a loud frenzy by the mere sight of another person, or if it’s
uncontrollable for any reason, it should not be welcome in the park. Have phone numbers and addresses of local
kennels available.
-
Limit the number of dogs per
campsite.
-
Empower
park rangers to write citations for those disturbing the peace. Irresponsible dog owners impose a cost on
others and they should be held accountable for those costs. These citations should be in excess of $100.00
-
Take
affirmative action. Require that all campground
hosts and rangers patrol and work to ameliorate all nuisances immediately. Please
do not wait for a complaint from another guest.
-
The status of dogs in the
park system to be put on probation pending a review. If the situation does not improve remarkably
in the next 12 months, dogs to be banned completely from the park system.
Mr. Director, thank you for taking the time to read
my letter. The Florida State Park System
is a true, world-class, gem and I want it to stay that way!
Regards,
John Q Public
Not to mention, when I go to enjoy a beautiful park, the last thing I want to encounter is dog crap everywhere.
ReplyDeleteHere in Tucson, the 4th Avenue Street Fair recently instituted a "no pets" policy. There was some whining and howling from local dog owners, but they were in the minority. Many more people are now enjoying a street fair free of dogs taking dumps, getting into fights with each other, and barking.
ReplyDeleteGreat letter, well thought out and written. I ma a dog owner and I just gotta say I know far too many dog owners who think their animal has to go every damn where they go. They inconvenience everyone around them. I am not talking about a service animal that is well behaved and properly trained to handle a lot of stimuli and different situations, I am talking about barking nuisances that do nothing but irritate the shit out of everyone. Then these assclown dog owners are so emotionally crippled that they argue and whine incessantly about how their snookums and poochie-pooh is not a distraction and should go everywhere they go. They want to take their mongrels to the grocery store and restaurants. Yeah because I want to slip in your dog's piss and have hair on my tomatoes when I get home. Its not the DOGS problem that these people are using their animals as an emotional crutch. The dogs that are the most mentally unstable are the ones that the humans treat like babies instead of like dogs.
ReplyDelete/vent over.
Yes I own a dog but I do not inconvenience everyone else so he can be with me everywhere. He stays home when I go to the grocery store and he stays home when I go to eat out. He does not accompany me on every trip. And he RARELY barks. He's a small dog that is usually the type that's known for the yapping but he doesn't yap. Since I have had him he's barked all of a few times. He doesn't bark for just the hell of it. I notice the dogs who bark constantly are mentally unstable and nervous. (caused by their owners treating them like humans and babies instead of like dogs.)
Thanks for writing this. I don't live in Florida but I found that it was very well written and takes into consideration the feelings of the majority and I like how you wrote up a way to even appease dog owners.
Niice post thanks for sharing
ReplyDelete