The ad hoc South Portland Dogs and Public Spaces Advisory Committee has asked if I support an enclosed dog park, with dogs prohibited from all public spaces in South Portland or leashed in public spaces. My short answer is: No, I am not willing to use a restrictive, unsanitary, unshaded, grassless and enclosed dog park in a city with 375 acres of parks and 25 acres of open-space conservation easements.

I have been following the ongoing confrontations between dog owners and so-called “concerned” citizens who fear walking on the beach during dog hours. If people are afraid of dogs or they want to bird watch, they can go to any other park or open space in the city to do so. The Audubon is dog-free – go there to bird watch.

The amount of hyperbole and fear manufactured by these hyperactive conversations is appalling and frightening to anyone living in what is considered to be, albeit loosely, a democracy, since the anti-dog rhetoric seems to be emanating from a very vocal minority of non-dog people. Most of us are tired of dealing with a minority opinion, whether it be about dogs or vaccines.

I have been watching a Nat Geo Wild veterinary show set in Australia. It’s called “Vets on the Beach,” and the scenes of crowded beaches populated by humans and canines sunning, playing, cavorting and surfing together is quite refreshing and so contrary to what’s going on in South Portland. We have become a nation of Karens.

Barbara Dee
South Portland

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