Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Random Rant: Curb Your Dog!

I was walking out of my building yesterday in DUMBO to see this woman walking her two little norfolk terriers. Nothing against terriers, my family has a cairn, but what she was doing really pissed me off.

She was pulling one of them by the neck to jump over the little gate around the tree outside my building so he could go urinate on the tree. While I don't like to see people yanking their dogs by the neck, I was so irratated that she was dragging her dog over the little gate -- which is clearly to keep dogs from going to the bathroom in that area. The dog didn't seem too enthusiastic about jumping over anyway.

So I asked our doorman if she lived in the building, cause this is an issue the residents have discussed, and the guy standing next to me in the lobby said "we need to put curb your dog signs up." I was like seriously, are you kidding me? You're telling me this lady doesn't know that the gates aren't there for a reason?

Well, I told her I would appreciate if she didn't let her dogs pee on our trees and in case she didn't realize, the gates are there for a reason. She apologized, smiled and walked away. But it really made me angry. I realize people don't have much of a choice as to where their animals go to the bathroom in the city, but when someone has clearly made an effort to keep pets out, why must people just ignore it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand this is a rant, but as a dog-owner (and a very responsible one at that), I think there needs to be more dog-friendly spaces available. More dog parks or dog runs would be a start...

Side note: my dog will only go in a very small space behind my apt. Yes, this is something that I have trained her to do. :)

Fairfield Mom said...

I totally agree! I was walking in the DUMBO part of Brooklyn Bridge park the other day and loved seeing people out with their dogs and that there was a small basket with plastic bags for dog owners to pick up after their dogs. Think it's a good start ;-)