Unleashing Dog Lovers’ Support

“Dogs need to be free,” said Florence Danieri fervently. “They need to run, they need to jump, they need to play.”

Danieri loves her dogs. In fact, Danieri loves pretty much all dogs. A lot. That’s why she and Zelda, her golden retriever, were willing to drive all the way from Long Beach to a park in Pasadena on Saturday morning.

There were dogs there that needed their support.

About 200 dog owners--and even more poodles, pit bulls and boxers--turned out to rally for a leash-free dog park. It would be a place where, as Danieri put it, dogs could “return, sort of, to their natural state.”

The rally was organized by Pasadenans Organizing Off-Leash Canine Habits. That’s POOCH for short.

The POOCHers are asking that plans for the city’s first new park in 10 years include a fenced-off dog exercise area. Advocates say having a park where pets could socialize and run about without leashes would cut down on leash-law violations, and make existing parks safer.

“Dogs can’t get the kind of exercise and socializing they need on leash,” said Vincent De Stefano, a POOCH leader and proud owner of two mutts, Rosarama and Mata Hari.

“Because dogs are territorial and protective of their owners, they’re actually safer and less confrontational when they’re off the leash,” said POOCH leader Liz Staggs Wilson.

But plans for the proposed park, which will be built alongside the Eaton Wash just below Orange Grove Boulevard, don’t include a no-leash area, De Stefano said.

So POOCH is protesting. Dog lovers lined up to sign petitions and organizers lobbied to publicize the cause.

“Since we know politicians understand only votes and money, we pulled this together to show community support, and we lined up corporate support to help pay for the park,” De Stefano said.

POOCH also boasts the support of the park’s neighboring homeowners associations and, most importantly, good demographics. De Stefano hopes the City Council will realize that although dogs might not vote, their owners do. And as POOCH points out, there are a lot more dogs in Pasadena than lawn bowlers, and the bowlers already have two places to play in the city’s park system.

Eventually, the POOCHers predict, the city will have to yield.

“If we don’t get our park this time, we’ll keep trying,” De Stefano said.

Fair warning to politicians: Pet owners in the Southland can get testy when there’s nowhere for their four-legged friends to roam free.

In 1996, a South Pasadena woman beat a leash-law violation when a Superior Court judge said the law didn’t apply to Tulip, the woman’s 80-pound potbellied pig. And in Venice last year, 200 dog owners marched down the boardwalk in a protest aimed at turning the beach into a leash- free zone.

*

But this is Pasadena, and the good-natured rally was more a pet playpen than protest. Dozens of dogs of every conceivable size and shape frolicked and fought playfully. They seemed thrilled and amazed at the sight of so many other canines.

So did the dog owners.

Pet lovers eagerly shared health and grooming tips, traded walking routes and browsed through dog accessories, such as a customized pouch designed to carry trash bags to clean up Rover’s mess on long walks.

Another hit was the flavored tennis balls, in vanilla, orange and licorice, for playing fetch--in no-leash zones only, of course.