MOUNTAIN VIEW CA Extended Their Off-Leash Pilot Program

If you may or may not recall, back in June of 2014, we told you about how Mountain View was testing an off-leash pilot program for one year. We went to one of the parks and enjoyed the new legal liberation!

In that piece, we noted which parks, and when:

Dogs were allowed off-leash in "Designated Sections" at the following parks...

-Bubb Park,
-Cooper Park,
-Eagle Park,
-McKelvey Park,
-Whisman Park*,
-Cuesta Park* and
-Cuesta Annex!

Hours for dogs being off-leash were...

-Between the hours of 6am and 10am,
-Weekdays,
-In designated areas.


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*Parks with exceptions...

-Whisman Park
--- Additional hours of 5pm to sundown on Weekdays.

-Cuesta Park
--- Off-leash from 6am to after sundown,
--- SEVEN DAYS A WEEK!

-Cuesta Annex
--- Seven days a week
--- 6am to 10am.

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Turns out that in late May of this year (2015), the city council approved extending this pilot program, if you want to call making it permanent an extension.

With the extension, they also expanded the hours for off-leash dogs at Whisman Park to include weekends, a new area for off-leash area may also be created at Rengstorff Park that could be used seven days a week.

According to my source, the city also budgeted more money for park ranger patrols, but they are only authorized to educate dog owners because only animal control officers can write tickets.  Which is weird, we've heard from other park-goers that the park rangers have distributed tickets. I'd still play it safe, just in case.

At the source link there are some fascinating, non-understanding comments from non-dog people. It is sad and serious all at once. I love one comment that said,

"I remember when this pilot program was discussed and launched. People on this very website were predicting dire consequences. Off-leash dogs would terrorize the citizenry. Kids would be attacked and maimed.

Guess what? Nothing happened."

Aside from the snark, some of the non-dog lovers do have some points. Not the over-inflated points about their own angst, but some comments regarding their concerns for dog owners not respecting non-dog people's spaces.

It's on all dog owners to help the cause to keep non-dog owners or fearful folks feel safe around our dogs. Not everyone loves dogs like we do and some folks really are scared of dogs.  Dog owners need to stay alert and keep an eye on our dogs and not just set them loose and then bury our heads in a book or our smartphones. (I love the smartphone users who just don't happen to notice their dogs leave droppings.) We need to pay attention to help other people's perceptions to be on our side, not the angry side.

Just saying.

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Source:  MV Voice.

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