Another Fine Mess

It doesn’t pay to mess around on South Bay beaches. Or rather, it doesn’t pay to let your dog mess around unless you plan to clean up afterward.

Hermosa Beach is poised to join neighboring Redondo Beach as the places with the priciest civil fines in all of Los Angeles County for people who violate pooper-scooper laws. Later this month, the Hermosa council will consider increasing fines for people who do not clean up after their dogs from the present $25 to $100 for a first offense, $200 for second offense and $300 for a third offense within 12 months.

It could be worse. These people traveling without extra plastic bags could be in Beverly Hills, which has made dereliction of doggie duty a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000. But Beverly Hills officials say that no one has ever been prosecuted under the law.

“These are the highest fines I have ever heard of in the county,” said Bob Ballenger, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control. “They may be the highest in the state as well.”

The average fine in the county for a pooper- scooper violation is about $47, according to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which provides animal care and control services throughout the county.

According to SPCA Executive Director Madeline Bernstein, more cities are enforcing their penalties. And puppy police in Marina del Rey have even conducted sting operations.

“Dog poop is something that gets tempers up,” Bernstein said. “When it’s a problem in your area people go nuts.”

In Hermosa Beach, dog doo is particularly problematic because thousands of visitors come to use the beach and the many parks. The proposed law was sparked by a petition by a group of parents complaining about what their children were running through at the park besides the grass.

Hermosa Beach Police Chief Val Straser said violations have increased over the last two years, although no numbers were available, and the only way the city can force people to pick up after their pets is by imposing stiffer penalties. The Police Department’s Parking Enforcement and Animal Control Division is responsible for enforcing the law.

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“We are hoping the higher fines will dissuade the chronic offenders,” Straser said. “If they don’t get the message verbally as a warning, then we will start citing them.”

The law is particularly important to residents in this crowded city of 18,000 people and 1,100 dogs living within 1.4 square miles. Unlike Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, Hermosa is the only beach city in the South Bay that allows dogs into its local parks. For that privilege, city officials want pet owners to clean up after their canines.

“This city is packed,” said Councilman John Bowler, who supports the law. “In the summertime we have more traffic on the Strand than the 405 and not cleaning up after your dog is thoughtless, especially to the people who share that thoroughfare.”

Although violators of the pooper-scooper law in Redondo Beach can be forced to pay up to $100 for the first fine, $200 for the second and $300 for the third, the “up to” clause gives a judge the discretion to determine the fine.

“We usually just go out on the Esplanade and tell people to pick up after their pet,” said Code Enforcement Officer Mike Magdaleno. “We find that most folks don’t even know that it’s a law so we try to educate them before we cite them.”

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Most dog walkers in Hermosa Beach seem to be unconcerned. Mary Ellen Bloom, who owns two dogs, said the only people who have to worry about the law are the ones who break it.

Gloria Anderson always takes a plastic bag and some paper towels when she walks her cocker spaniel Rupert on the greenbelt on Valley Drive.

“People shouldn’t have dogs if they’re not going to clean up after them,” Anderson said. “Lots of people don’t do it so the city has to get tougher.”

But there are those, such as Councilman Sam Edgerton, the only member of the council who voted against the increased fines the first time they came before council, who feel the city is taking it too far. Edgerton says the city is trying to over-legislate something that he doesn’t view as a serious problem.

“Dogs have been pooping since the beginning of time and as long as dog owners are responsible and do the right thing, I don’t think we have to go after them like this,” he said. “This is a reaction to a phobia and this is not the most serious problem we should be dealing with.”