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LOCAL LEGISLATION / ORDINANCES
Dog owners put on short leash
Jennifer Brett
-
Staff
Thursday, June 14, 2001
Dogs must stay on leashes at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park --- or they might have to stay home.
Park Superintendent John Cissell says he doesn't want to keep pooches out of the popular dog-walking spot, but he'll do it if owners don't stop releasing the hounds.
"If the dog situation gets worse, we will ban dogs in the park," he said.
Kennesaw rangers write between 80 and 100 citations a year to people whose dogs aren't on leashes, he said. He was bitten several years ago as he approached a couple to cite them for having an unleashed dog. The chow bit him three or four times --- on his billfold, luckily.
He knows of colleagues at other parks who have had to draw their weapons on aggressive, vicious dogs. There have been no such incidents at Kennesaw, but "I don't want to wait, and I won't wait until there is a savage attack," Cissell said.
The majority of dog owners do keep their pets on a leash, and Cissell has never gotten a report of a park patron being bitten. But he's afraid of what could happen if the few recalcitrant owners insist on letting their dogs run free.
"Especially early in the mornings, people will walk out into one of the fields and then turn their dog loose and let them run," Cissell said. "That's a great thing until someone else comes along."
A few years ago, Cissell's staff spotted a local advertisement organizing a dog walk at the park. Participants planned to hike to a field in the park, then let the dogs run free, the ad said. Cissell and his staff were waiting. They cited about 15 people that day.
"If they don't want to follow the rules in the park, they need to go buy them a big piece of land," he said.
He's strict because he's seen what can happen. While working in a Tennessee park in 1988, Cissell worked a dog-bite case. A girl of 4 or 5 was bitten in the face by a springer spaniel whose owners lived near the park. The girl's parents later sued the dog's owners, Cissell recalled.
"People think it they live close by, it's there for their own use. It's not."
In December 1999, park ranger Steve Makuakane-Jarrell, 47, was shot and killed at Honokohau-National Historic Park in Hawaii after responding to a complaint of a vicious dog, according to reports in the Honolulu Advertiser. Eugene Frederick Boyce III has pleaded not guilty and faces trial in October, the newspaper reported.
Word of Makuakane-Jarrell's death spread quickly to ranger stations throughout the country, said Cissell, who has not encountered violence on the job. What he has encountered are more people as growth continues in west Cobb County --- and more wildlife, as critters are driven from vanishing habitats into the park. All the more reasons to insist dogs are reined in, he says.
"The more people you have, the more rules you have to have," he said. Cissell knows he'd hear from angry dog-walkers if he refused access to their pets, and hopes his message will reach those who might threaten to force him to rescind the privilege.
"I completely support the issue that all dogs ought to be on-leash," said Carolyn Emmett, who was dog-walking with her husband Hal at the park the other day. "Keeping the dog on-leash is obeying the park's regulations, but it's also being a good neighbor. I would really hate to lose the privilege of walking the dogs in the park."
For now, rangers will monitor the situation and give citations when needed.
"I've always liked dogs," said Cissell, who has owned dogs in the
past but has none now. "I wouldn't want to (ban dogs), but I would if I had
to."