People of Goodale Park, I’m calling you out. I’ve had it. This, the largest city park in the downtown/Short North area of Columbus, Ohio, is the community focus for a variety of people. It has tennis courts, a meeting area, a lily pond, a basketball court, and two playgrounds. During the summer it is a center of attention for the awesome people-watching, music-listening, incense-sniffing, chow-eating Comfest. It’s a park in my neighborhood, a park I enjoy seeing on regular walks.
It is also the meeting place for large numbers of people who like to let their dogs run free.
I have a dog. I like my dog. I like dogs in general. But I understand that dogs are domesticated wolves, creatures dedicated to defending the pack from outsiders and establishing domination/subordination ranks within the pack through challenge. Dogs are animals with sharp teeth and claws. Dogs will take a crap on the grass. Anybody who has a dog must understand this to establish a healthy relationship between themselves and their dog, and to maintain reasonable relationships with their dog and the surrounding environment.
The City of Columbus, Ohio recognizes the nature of dogs and consequently sets expectations for the behavior of dogs and the behavior of dog owners within city limits. Columbus City Code 919.16 (C) states:
No pet owner shall fail to clean up after their pets by collecting and removing feces from park or reservoir property. Pets shall include dogs, cats, or other animals whose owners knowingly bring them into park or reservoir property.
Columbus City Code 2327.11 (A-C) states:
No owner of any animal shall permit such animal to run large on any property not his own. No owner of any animal, shall permit the animal to enter upon any property not that of his owner, when it is not securely leashed or under direct control. It shall be prima-facie evidence that a dog is not under direct control if it chases, injures or kills any person or domestic animal or damages or commits any nuisance upon property other than that of its owner. Whoever violates this section is guilty of permitting animals running at large, a minor misdemeanor. If the animal is a dog, a violation of this section is a misdemeanor of the third degree.
I am sure (because I have seen it with my own eyes) that there are people who come to Goodale Park with their dogs and are committed to sharing the park responsibly with other citizens. If you’re one of these people, I want to make it clear I’m not talking to you.
I’m talking to the people who let their dogs take craps in the two playground areas of the park and don’t have the basic decency or commitment to public health to clean up after them. I’m talking to the people who let their dogs turn the rest of Goodale park into a fecal minefield, making a game of catch or frisbee untenable. I’m talking to the people like the three people who let their dogs charge my 3-year-old daughter during our last trip to Goodale Park. Don’t tell me “it’s OK!” as I pick up my screaming child and you tell me that your dog, which has its tail dominantly raised in the air, is a “nice puppy.” Don’t tell me this is the way nature intended things to be. “Nature” didn’t put people in cities and build public parks.
Don’t tell me you’re being discriminated against, either. Columbus has more than one dog park where you can let poochiekins run free. While there are dog owners who want to make it legal for dogs to be leashless at Goodale Park, that is not the current state of law. The law is not important just because it is the law. It is important because it is a representation of the commitment that we citizens should have to each other: to enjoy our freedoms but to do so with the commitment not to harm or impinge upon the freedoms of others.
What’s happened at Goodale Park is that for some time now a community of (some) dog owners has decided to enjoy the freedom to let their dogs run free around the park without accountability or responsibility. Because of the irresponsible attitude toward park usage by these dog owners, I can’t use the playground or surrounding areas with my children without being exposed to unhealthy deposits. I’ve had to launder out the remains. Because some people within the Goodale Park community of people act irresponsibly with their dogs, my daughter is justifiably afraid to go to Goodale Park.
The conduct of dog owners who don’t control and clean after their dogs is abusive, aggressive, and arrogant. It’s time for this conduct to stop. I’m not telling you that dogs shouldn’t be welcome at Goodale Park. They should be welcome at Goodale Park, but they and their owners should be just as responsible as I am for my children. My children are not permitted to use the park as a latrine, and my children are not permitted to to behave aggressively toward others at the park. I am expected to control and clean after my children. You should be, and are, expected to control and clean after your dogs. If you can do so, you are welcome to use Goodale Park. If you can not manage to do so, you should not bring your dog to Goodale Park. This standard is what responsible citizenship is all about. Be a responsible citizen. That’s all I ask.
ah – it’ll decompose in a few weeks . . .
If it rains every day. And if it’s not the winter, when biological processes go slow. And if it’s not the summer, when the heat bakes the outside of the turd into a cookie. And if enough animals including humans roll around in it enough to smoosh it around. Until then, it’s a disease vector which threatens other dogs even more than humans.
Sorry, Tom. Shit matters.
Here the decomposition process takes months, not weeks. In the meantime, other dogs are attracted by the odor and leave more waste and mark the territory with urine. With our last dog-owner tenant, the dog shit problem was so intense that children were habitually warned about “land mines” when trying to play catch in the yard and the tenant in the back carriage house simply discarded shoes rather than try to clean them.
While chicken or sheep manure can be used as fertilizer when it has seasoned for two years and is spread out over an area, dog waste is too fresh and concentrated to benefit plants. The grass and evergreens end up with burned spots–here it’s called “dog mosaic.”
Meanwhile we humans foul the air with all matter of crap no one’s gonna “pick up” (and talk about a disease vector – sheesh), clear cut the ancient forests for Kleenex, ruin the mountains and deserts, oceans, rivers and streams with OUR waste (pollution of all kinds). So, since my tongue in cheek comment has taken us here (i have three dogs of my own and pick up after them), let’s get to the heart of the matter about shit.
Apparently shit only matters when it belongs to somebody else. “It’s okay, we’re on our way out anyhow.” seems to be the prevailing thought of most of humanity including the leaders of our government (not to mention China and India) and most of corporate world, let alone the citizen slobs that inhabit the planet.
It ALL has to be “picked up” or the same problems arise as your local area scenario.
Have fun figuring out what to do with the waste from clean, cheap, affordable nuclear energy!
Amen OP. I know several people who won’t go to the park because of the dogs. Almost every time I visit a dog makes unwelcome contact with me or my child, and owners so often become abusive–really abusive–when asked to control their dogs that I’ve stopped asking altogether. But really since so many owners routinely flout the law and treat the dog as a dog park it’s only a matter of time before someone’s severly injured, and all the dogs will banned or on leashes, and we will have our park back.
Jim, could you please stop taking your children to restaurants? Their non-sensical chatter and crying is making me afraid to eat out for fear that my dining environment will be ruined.
Does that argument make sense? Neither does yours.
Go dogs!
Yes, actually, that argument does make sense. If my children cannot behave in restaurants, they should not go to restaurants. When my children were younger, I did not take them to fancy restaurants for just that reason.
Similarly, if my children have a habit of taking dumps on the grass in in a public park, or of jumping on you, or of biting you on the leg, then I should not be taking them to a public park, or I should keep them on a leash.
Just as my children should be expected to follow the rules — and the law –, so should your dog.
Technically a leash has nothing to do with the law.
You’re right; as long as a dog acts completely as though it were on a leash, not bothering anyone, not crapping on the ground, not jumping on my kids, then it need not be on a leash according to the law. Technically. Practically, for most dogs that means they’re going to have to be on a leash.
It is simple! This is a large park…The city needs to build a dog park somewhere for dogs to run free!!
I agree: it is simple, and it’s already been addressed. Columbus already has a free public dog park.
As a person that visits the park on a regular basis,let me say this,yes there are a few dog owners that do not take care of their dogs crap,but for the most park most of the ones I see do take care of their dogs,so far i never met a bad dog yet,they all come up to be checked out and petted on,I have never seen a dog fight in the park ever…it’s not the dogs throwing trash on the grounds and cigarette butts al over the place either…. it only takes one or two bad apples to spoil it for everybody… A park patrol person might be the answer or litter bags,you can bet the owners that let their dogs crap and not pick it up are the same ones trashing the park,so maybe they should be caught on camera,fined,and barred from the park,that might fix the problem,I’m game to film a few pics and turn them over to the city and see what happens,just my thoughts…..
As a person who lives right on the park, and who sits on the front porch at all hours just people watching….I can tell you you are EXACTLY RIGHT. I see more people look around as their dogs are doing their business, check to see if anyone is watching, and then keep walking after their dog has pooped. (Clearly they don’t see us in our homes, looking out, watching.)
Oftentimes the dog is pooping JUST off of the sidewalk – you know in that area where we step-off the sidewalk to give other people more room to walk.
It’s appalling. Columbus, we should do better at doing the RIGHT thing ALL the time, not just when people might see us.
Lets put it this way. Since some dog owners are toooooo lazy to pick up after their dogs lets watch who doesn’t pick-up the piles take it too their houses and smear it on their front porches. Take the matter into your own hands. The police are to busy to enforce laws like this. To the lazy ass dog owners with their little smart comments I hope when you are walking away with fido and the pile is still steaming I hope a crackhead grabs the pile chases you down and throws it in your face. Go Crackheads. Radical but come on you lazy asses. REALLY
Now since I’am noot the smartest guy in this city I think since Goody to shoe park is now a let your dog run free park I’ll bring my 4-pitbulls down and let them run…. thats because I am so smart. But, don’t try to stop them while their biting you. (see the point) Thats what will happen if you irresponsible dog owners don’t do the right thing. There are some stupid people that will ruin it for all of us.
I visit Goodale park several times a year and i do not have a dog,but do observe others that do. the only issue i have personally witnessed,was one morning A homeless person was walking thru the park when this Lady’s dog ran up to him growling and his hair was raised,the man asked her why was her dog not on a lease? She started calling him filth and a bum and her dog had as much right running loose in the park as he did…so the issue expanded into a lot of cussing and name calling on both party’s,the simple solution should have been for the women to have caught her dog put him on a lease and expressed her sorrow that her dog wanted to jump the guy…I like to metal detect in the park looking for bits of history and dog poop issue is bad,lots of lazy owners just don’t care where their dogs crap except in their own yards.but for the most part i have never had any of the dogs give me a hard time,i pet everyone that comes up to me…it all boils down to personal responcibility for their dogs,A poop warden might be an answer to the problem,so all you Dog Owners do your duty and pick up your dog doody!