The future of the city's public park leash policy is now in the hands of the parks department, following a fittingly wild hearing last Thursday, which saw opposing factions accuse each other of falsifying signatures on an online petition.
Seems opponents of codifying "unofficial" off-leash hours produced a petition with over 4,000 allegedly fraudulent signatures - which they reportedly accused pro-off-leashers of generating in an attempt to render the entire petition invalid. Anti-off-leashers have also implied that pro-off-leashers stacked their own petition with fictitious names. All of which begs the question: Does anyone really pay attention to online petitions?
Meanwhile, a much more civilized discussion is taking place on the subject of dog poop, and the fines inherent upon the act of not scooping same. In other words, most randomly approached New Yorkers seem to agree that increasing the fine for leaving a dog's leavings - from $100 to $250 - is a fine idea. This is a good thing, since Mayor Bloomberg supports the hike and will make it law regardless.
Graphic: NY Post
