Dog walking limited, not banned, on town beaches

[bigdoglover]

Portsmouth-Herald

By Rachel M. Collins

YORK, Maine - Residents voted Saturday to limit dog walking on their beaches starting this summer, but they stopped short of banning dogs altogether.
Voters overwhelmingly approved updating the town’s animal-control ordinance to ban dogs from the beaches May 20 to Sept. 20 except from dawn until 8 a.m. and after 6 p.m. until dawn, on a leash only. Under the ordinance, dogs still will be allowed to be off leashes on summer mornings if their owners carry a leash and the pet is under voice control. Dog owners who don’t pick up their pets’ waste on any property not their own or who don’t carry a waste bag when walking their dogs will be subject to fines.

"It shows that it was a reasonable compromise and ordinance," selectmen Chairman David Marshall said. "I think people want to try it out."

York Police Chief Douglas Bracy said the ordinance, which had not been rewritten since 1993, represented a compromise because it didn’t totally ban dogs from the beaches in the summer. But members of a local group Animal-Responsible Friends, or ARF, had opposed the beach restrictions of the ordinance.

"We supported a lot of what they wanted to do," spokesman Bruce Clough said Sunday. "In fact, we were glad that 12 of the 13 changes passed because it will make it easier for the police to enforce."

However, Clough said ARF "was sad that the restrictions on the beaches in the evenings had to be lumped in with the rest of the ordinance." The group had asked selectmen to have voters decide separately on the evening beach restrictions.

Voters were asked in a separate nonbinding question on the ballot whether they would support banning dogs entirely from York’s beaches and the Wiggly Bridge/Steedman Woods area during the summer. By just more than 350 votes, residents said they didn’t support a ban. The outcome of the poll will not prohibit a ban, but will be used for information by town officials.

For now, Bracy said, this summer season will be looked at as a pilot program for the new animal-control ordinance. That is why Clough said Sunday he remained optimistic that selectmen would form a citizens committee, as they have discussed, to monitor the effectiveness and necessity of the ordinance’s various provisions and beach restrictions.

"We’ll just have to see how things go this summer," he said.

[missymoo]

we are in Uk and it has been enforced for many years the may to sept ban.
We accept that although we clean up after our dogs many holiday makers don't and it has spoiled it for many and who wants their child to build sandcastles amongst dog poop!

But then again at this rate there will be no open spaced left to use!