Updated 1/24/2003

LEGISLATORS INTRODUCE ANTI-DOG PARKS BILL!

UPDATE
Suffolk County legislators Allan Binder (R-Huntington) (email, website) and Ginny Fields (D-Oakdale) (email, website) have introduced a bill (IR-2234) that would gut a law designed to allow dog parks in Suffolk County.  Among other requirements, the bill would require Suffolk dog owners to foot the county’s bill for liability insurance in order to run a dog park. The insurance would have to be purchased “in such amounts” as determined by the county and its “sole cost and expense” would be born by dog owners!  These costs would amount to thousands of dollars and essentially kill any existing or proposed dog parks.  The measure also would ban dog parks within one-quarter mile of a waterway. This would put many areas of Suffolk County parkland off-limits to dog owners for good. It would also close Coindre Hall in Huntington, the biggest and best established dog run in Suffolk County. Coindre Hall has been enjoyed by thousands of dog owners and their dogs for more than 20 years.

Scientists who have studied dog parks have found that dog parks do not pose a threat to the environment. In all dog parks, owners are required to pick up after their dogs. Properly handled, dog waste is “not harmful to the environment and has no negative effect on wetlands,” writes one scientist in a recent open letter to the legislature. (See, “Dog Parks Do Not Harm the Environment”)

Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper (email, website) vigorously supports our efforts to preserve the dog run at Coindre Hall and to establish dog parks elsewhere in Suffolk County. His bill to establish dog parks in Suffolk County (IR-2253), which had a public hearing on Dec. 17th,  is now slated to be considered by the Parks Committee, which is chaired by Leg. Fields.

A separate measure that would bring the dog run at Coindre Hall into compliance with county law (IR-1953) has been tabled temporarily while a site plan is developed as part of an environmental review.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
E-Mail or phone the legislators on this list and let them know we will not put up with hostile and punitive anti-dog owner actions! Tell them we represent the tax paying public and we need dog parks! Tell them you support Legislator Cooper’s reasonable approach to dog runs. (Parks Committee Members appear in red and are identified by an asterisk *).

Your message: “We need money for Dog Parks, not political payoffs”, “Dog owners pay taxes, too”, “We need a safe & legal place for our dogs”, “County Parks are for all the people”, “Dog Parks are good for the community”, “Dog behavior improves because of Dog Parks”, “A walk around the block is insufficient”, “There are already more than 1,000 Dog Parks in the U.S., & Suffolk County needs to get on board”, “Dogs need exercise”, “We need Dog Parks”!

If your e-mail message to the legislature is really good,  send it to us, too, at hdog_news@yahoo.com. As long as it's not obscene, we'll probably publish it!  

Special Alert
Dog owners in Legislators Fields’ and Binder’s districts, especially, need to speak up now! Legislator Fields represents the Ninth District in the Oakdale area. Legislator Binder represents the 16^th district in Huntington, which includes Dix Hills, Elwood and Greenlawn.

Click here for a description of Legislator Fields’ district.
Click here for a description of Legislator Binder’s district.

Speak up! Let your voice be heard!