And happy first day of “Spring”!
Actually, it's been almost (early)
Spring-like around here the past few days, which means that the snow
is melting and leaving in its wake a bunch of stuff no one should
have to see. So with that in mind I dug out a blog that I used to
post every year around this time (although not for the past half
decade or so). Here it is, as originally written March 24th,
2003 (back, apparently, when I felt I needed to capitalize almost
everything for emphasis).
It's kind of sad things really haven't
changed in the 16 years since.
****
I’ve discovered the one bad thing
about snow melting in Marquette—dog crap.
Piles of dog crap EVERYWHERE.
You know, if I ever run for Marquette
City Commission, I know I may be the biggest loser in the city’s
electoral history. Why? Because some days, I feel like one of the
main platforms of my campaign would be to ban dogs in the city.
Now, I know MANY people will not agree
with that sentence, but it’s the truth—a city really IS no place
for a bounding, fun-loving, full of energy animal like that. Farms
are GREAT for animals like that. Suburbs with big back yards are
GREAT for animals like dogs. And I really do think dogs can be a
valued member of a family, especially with a single person looking
for companionship or a family with kids. But to try and keep them
cooped up in houses or chained up in a yard…that’s really not
fair to the animals, is it?
Marquette has three specific laws
regarding dogs, and while 90% of the people follow them to the
letter, it’s the 10 percent that DOESN’T that made we want to
write this column.
First of all, let’s specifically
address the dog poop issue. There is a pooper-scooper law in
Marquette. If you dog goes, you have to clean it up. However, just
look around any sidewalk in Marquette where the snow has melted. You
see piles of the stuff EVERYWHERE. You have to jump over it, walk
around it, detour by it…and all because some people refuse to
follow that law. And if you point that out to someone whose dog does
their natural business and doesn’t clean it up, they get defensive,
like you’re persecuting their poor pet for no reason at all.
Maybe we should just put mounds of
bacteria-breeding material on every street corner and be done with
it.
There’s also a leash law in
Marquette, one that states you must keep your dog on a 6-foot (or
shorter) leash. Yet every time I go running or walking (especially
in the summer, near a park) there ALWAYS seems to be a loose dog
running toward me, fangs bared, often times nipping at my heels or
jumping on my leg. When I yell at it or push it out of the way, the
owner once again gets defensive and says “my dog won’t hurt you”.
Well, how do I know that? It’s an animal showing its teeth and
running at me. What do you THINK goes through my mind at a time like
that?
Finally, there’s also a law that says
your dog isn’t s’posed to be outside between, I believe, 11pm and
7am. That way, your animal won’t bark, whine, or whimper, and keep
everyone in the neighborhood up. Now, I may be a little sensitive on
this issue, seeing as how I have a neighbor who keeps TWO dogs out
and vocal every night, but isn’t common courtesy an issue in this
matter? If your backyard (or wherever you keep your dog) connects
with 6 or 7 other backyards, SHOULDN’T you think about others
before putting your dog out? My neighbor has said they put the dogs
out because they bark inside the house and keep THEM awake.
After hearing THAT, I just kept
thinking “HELLO…if they’re loud in your house, whaddya think
they’re like OUTSIDE”?
I know that I’m in a VERY small
minority on this issue. I know that no one wants to get rid of their
dogs, and I know that no one wants to see more restrictive laws
placed on them. Maybe if that 10% of people I mentioned at the
beginning of this column would just realize that their pets can be
and sometimes ARE a problem, and would do something about it, maybe
we could ALL live in peace.
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