Line Drawn in the Sand Over Dogs

A secluded one-mile stretch of San Onofre State Beach has long served as a haven for dogs and their owners, one of the few public places along the local coast where dogs are openly welcome to romp and play.

But over the past few summers, state lifeguards at the beach (just south of the Orange County line) have found it increasingly difficult to keep pace with a proliferation of pooches and the accompanying problems: owners who won’t keep their pets on leashes, an explosion of doggie doo--and bites.

And the bites are not just of the canine variety, either.

“The final straw for us came last summer, when one of our lifeguards was issuing a citation to a pet owner and he got bitten on the hand--not by the dog, but by the owner,” said state lifeguard Mike Brousard. “Unfortunately, we’ve been forced to take some action.”

Now, after 25 years of allowing dogs to romp on the southern tip of the beach, state lifeguards announced this week they will be closing the area to canines from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

They have yet to decide whether to reopen the beach to dogs after summer ends.

The news came as a blow to many Orange County residents who regularly make the trek down the winding, steep trails that cut through San Onofre’s cliffs to the remote but popular dog beach--a wide ribbon of sand just south of the San Onofre nuclear power plant at the base of Trail 5. In an area where natural open space is rapidly shrinking, especially the kind where canines can frolic, the ban on pooches was seen as a knee-jerk reaction.

“This is just ridiculous,” said 28-year-old Capistrano Beach resident Greg Marano. “Where can you take your dog anymore? They’re making it practically illegal to own a dog.”

Shana Kelly, a 19-year-old San Clemente resident who brings her Belgian shepherd, Niki, to the beach every week, disagreed with lifeguards’ view that dogs have been running amok on the beach.

“People don’t bring dogs down here that are out of control,” Kelly said. “Most of the dogs are really trained.”

There are only two public beaches in Orange County where dogs are allowed, according to state park officials. One is in Laguna Beach, which is open to canines after sunset. The other is at the Huntington City Beach, on a stretch of sand that runs from Golden West Street to Bolsa Chica State Beach, which is open year-round to dogs.

For South County residents like Kelly, both beaches are just too far away.

“This is the only place where [Niki] can run and get some exercise,” Kelly said. “I think it’s absolutely unnecessary to close this beach off to dogs.”

But lifeguards say they have no choice.

“Our citations [for unleashed dogs] went from about six a year to over 40 last year,” Brousard said, adding that lifeguards also issued hundreds of warnings to dog owners with unleashed hounds. “We were spending too much time [issuing citations] and not watching the water. It began to detract from our ability to do our basic job.”

State lifeguard John Cornell, who patrols the south end of the beach, said he understood people would be upset about the new rule, especially since it was prompted by “a few bad apples ruining the batch.”

But Cornell added: “We’ve had small children bitten by dogs and people getting harassed by dogs. And people aren’t cleaning up after their dogs. It’s a big problem.”

That problem, Brousard said, has been intensified by the fact that the dog beach at San Onofre is getting more and more popular.

“In the last several years, we’ve noticed a severe upswing in the number of dogs on the beach,” Brousard said. “On any given weekend day, there can be up to 70 dogs on the beach.”

Officials hope the new rule will free up time for lifeguards who have been spending more of their summer days chasing down pet owners who can’t seem to keep their dogs leashed.

But in the meantime, all may not be lost for canines and their owners. After the new rule takes effect, lifeguards will consider whether to reopen the one-mile stretch of dog beach at San Onofre--and possibly a larger section--to canines during the off-season.

“We’ll be trying to work something out for dog owners,” Brousard said.