Scoop: Some Dog Owners Spoil Parks

Sheriff Bob Brooks may be popping the buttons off his shirt now that major crime has hit a 25-year low in Ventura County, but he’s apparently missed the scene of some pretty mangy high crimes and misdemeanors, namely our neighborhood parks.

Join me for a stroll through Conejo Creek Park, the largest in the 12,000-acre Conejo Recreation and Park District, “designed to provide citizens with relief from the noise and congestion of the city.” Dogs find relief there as well. In fact, they can be found relieving themselves, with frequency and without interference, along otherwise pristine pathways.

Thousand Oaks resident Liz Klein wrote me to kvetch.

“I can’t believe that this affluent and relatively educated group of people are immune to the hazards awaiting them as they walk and jog throughout the parks.” She recently witnessed two pony-sized setters doggedly defying the leash laws. After the pair of pooches dropped a couple of steaming canine calling cards, the owner herded them back into his car but not before Klein stopped to inquire whether he had neglected to bring along his “pooper scooper.” The surly scofflaw growled back, “Lady, that’s what the city pays these park guys for.”

The Devil’s Dictionary defines “responsibility” as “a detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, fate, fortune, luck or one’s neighbor.” The hair on the back of Klein’s neck still bristles at the mention of such a mongrel excuse. She simply can’t stomach the self-absorbed dogma of entitlement that makes him think park maintenance personnel exist merely to serve him.

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When Kathy Jenks, who heads up Ventura County Animal Regulation (covering all cities except Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Santa Paula) heard this scruffy tale, she howled, “Good luck! Common sense would tell you to pick up the poop. Obviously people don’t.”

Local government can legislate or local government can educate.

Leash laws and regulations that compel a pet owner to demonstrate being prepared to dispose of Bowser brownies (Doggie Walk Bags from Petco @ $2.79 or Presto Walk’n Toss from Vons @ $2.39) are on the books, but enforcement depends on catching the alleged curs in the act. If cited, however, you pay the judge $135. If mandating morality is your druther, Ventura County should be dogging New York Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stein--he’s currently swelling Gotham’s coffers by exacting $1,000 fines from the owners of free-ranging Fidos.

While nobody relishes stepping into pet waste, there are even more significant implications to the poop problem. Question: What do yellow and red beach signs have to do with dog detritus in inland parks? Answer: Maximum meltdown comes with the rain. Those big caution signs spin out the whole sorry story: “Warning: Contaminated Water. Urban runoff storm-drain water may cause illness.”

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The water quality testers have been busy. Bacteria levels chronically exceed health-based limits at Surfers Point in Ventura and the “kiddie beach” at Channel Islands Harbor. Excessive contamination levels have whacked McGrath State Beach (Oxnard), Promenade Park (Ventura) and Point Mugu State Beach.

Vicki Musgrove of the Ventura County Flood Control District sums it up best: “Either pick it up or swim in it.” She pointed me in the direction of Mr. Pooper Scooper, a.k.a. Richard Bradley, an administrative analyst with the city of Ventura where the “Mutt Mitts” program (also in Oxnard) has been in operation for six months. He claims that pooch-owner peer pressure is much more effective than erratic enforcement. Easy access to complimentary bags makes his only problem keeping Ventura’s 12 dispensers filled.

What is preventing this win-win solution from coming to Thousand Oaks or a park near you? First, the Ventura County Flood Control District must bark up a $20,000 money tree, and second, the various city councils must agree to the free ride.

So who’s going to raise hackles about doodie duty when it’s as simple as a walk in the park?

Not even that low-down hound with the setters, I’ll bet.