Unleashed dogs stray beyond boundaries, at Woodstock Park

By Merry MacKinnon

The Bee, Jul 7, 2010

Merry MacKinnon / THE BEE

Here, an unleashed dog wanders into the children’s play area at Woodstock Park, contrary to the rules of the park.

When Woodstock resident Charlene Makley takes her weekly jog around Woodstock Park, lately she’s noticed a trend that disturbs her — it’s what she describes as a takeover of the park’s entire 14 acres by unleashed dogs.

Of the 32 Portland parks where areas are officially set aside for dogs to run unleashed, only six are fenced. Woodstock Park's off-leash dog area is not one of them. Instead, it has boundary markers, put there to advise dog owners to keep their dogs from running outside those boundaries and into the children's play area, the picnic area, and the sports field.

“It’s the dog owners’ responsibility to call their dogs back, if they’re leaving the area," explains Portland Parks & Recreation Off-leash Program Manager Ali Ryan.

It’s also a challenge when the park provides an unleashed dog area alongside other recreational uses, admits Ryan. In order to remind dog owners of their responsibilities, Park Rangers and Multnomah County Animal Officers are dispatched to the parks which have a lot of complaints — such as the protest Makley recently sent off to Portland Parks & Recreation.

“Since the center space at Woodstock Park was given over to unleashed dogs, we [Makley, her husband, and three children] have gradually given up using all green space, and stay on the cement to avoid strange, excited dogs — and also, we now find poop everywhere. Dogs are not staying within the boundaries of the dog park,” writes Makley, in that letter.

Makley, who is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Reed College, adds that dog owners at Woodstock Park are bringing their dogs into the children’s play area, letting the dogs drink from the water fountain, allowing them to run on the sports field, and even taking their dogs onto the Woodstock Elementary School grounds to run there.

“They are now also running their dogs — even meeting in groups to do so — on Woodstock School's ball diamond,” Makley charges.

Ryan acknowledges that when a park such as Woodstock offers such a variety of amenities, the number of complaints received determines how many times enforcement is dispatched to address the problem. In the case of Woodstock Park, Ryan says the number of complaints has not been exceptional, but that Park Rangers and animal officers have been sent to Woodstock Park to issue tickets for rule violations, which include fines of $150.

“A lot of dog owners are very respectful, and are wonderful about keeping their dogs inside the off-leash boundaries, but there are other folks who aren’t so diligent,” Ryan says.

In addition to improved enforcement, Makley would like a fence installed between the hill edge of the off-leash area and the playground; more signage explaining rules and fines for dog owners; and installation of a water fountain up in the off-leash area.

“It seems to me that it’s time for us as a community to revisit how this space should be shared and for unleashed dogs to return to the space and times allotted them,” Makley concludes.

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