Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Dogs in Community

[Zia Terhune (ziaterhune]

What about creating a dog park?  When dogs are not running around in this
enclosure, they need to be leashed.

Zia Terhune
V-Ecovillage, still forming

On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 11:32 PM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] 
sharonvillines.com
> wrote:

>
>
> On 23 Jun 2011, at 7:44 PM, R.N. Johnson wrote:
>
> > In the past we had a dog who growled at people, and that dog was not
> allowed in the common area.
>
> Who enforced this? We have problems with no one wanting to be the enforcer.
>
> In my opinion, the only reason we got a pet policy passed requiring dogs to
> be "under control of the owner" at all times is that the DC law is very
> clear about this. Their interpretation is that it refers to the ability of
> the owner to restrain the dog immediately. DC Animal Control interprets this
> as the owner keeping the dog on a leash or being able to reach out and grab
> the dog.
>
> With 3 dogs and 20 children, some of us believe that dogs running free is a
> serious attack waiting to happen. There were times when several children
> ages 5-9 or so would be running around in circles chasing the dogs and dogs
> chasing them, with all the dogs off leashes.
>
> Child steps on dog's toes, dog defends foot, child goes to hospital
> possibly disfigured for life. The dog is not to blame. The child is still
> disfigured.
>
> Finally we checked the law. If we allow dogs to run free on our property,
> the whole community will be liable for any injury, not the owner. We got the
> policy passed.
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
>
>
>
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