Baltimore City (Baltimore, MD) residents supporting REDUCED Dog-Leash Fines

This petition supports the significant lowering of dog fines as introduced on April 20, 2009 by Baltimore City Council ordinance 09-0322, titled Leash Law- Environmental and Civil Citations FOR THE PURPOSE of reducing certain civil penalties for violating animal control law requirements for leashes or other restraints; and providing for a special effective date." Additionally, we encourage the City Council to quickly introduce additional legislature that will make Baltimore City more dog-friendly through new programs such as off-leash hours in public green areas and dog parks.

We, the undersigned, protest the recent January 2009 Leash Law tied to escalated fines and support the counter-ordinance 09-0322 that proposes significantly reduced fines, currently scheduled for a vote by the City Council of Baltimore at 10:00 a.m. on April 28, 2009.

As an active citywide community representing citizens of all ages, races and economic backgrounds, we share a love of our dogspets we responsibly exercise in public spaces. The recent dramatic increase of Baltimore Citys off-leash fines has successfully united us to petition for a variety of public opportunities to maximize dog-owning residents to responsibly use and enjoy Baltimores public green areas, just as major American cities have offered citizens for decades.

We seek to significantly reduce leash-law fines to the amount BEFORE the January 2009 increase. Recognizing the need for public safety, we support several basics of the City Councils enforcement: all dogs should have a current rabies vaccination, a dog license and should be carefully supervised by a responsible person.

Please understand: we clean up after our dogs, keep them inoculated, maintain and take responsibility for their behavior, as well as frequently pick up trash left by non-dog walking visitors; most of us have worked hard to improve the safety and livability of our favorite Baltimore City parks.

Those among us who own homes within the city pay real estate taxes, vote, and we also pay annual pet license fees (hoping these funds are not being used to enforce the new leash laws.) We now petition the reduction of off-leash fines. In addition, we also seek future formalized public policies to support our desire to legally exercise our off-leash dogs while celebrating Baltimore Citys public green spaces with our pets.

We ask the sponsors of the proposed reduced fines (file ID 09-0322) under consideration (James B. Kraft, William H. Cole, IV, Robert W. Curran, Edward L. Reisinger, Nicholas C. D'Adamo, Bill Henry, Agnes Welch, Helen L. Holton, Rochelle 'Rikki' Spector, Bernard C. 'Jack' Young, Warren Branch, President Rawlings-Blake and Belinda K. Conaway) to move quickly and respond to their constituents by significantly lowering the aforementioned fines.

Subsequently, after the sponsors vote in favor of Ordinance 09-0322, we ask them to explore mutually-agreeable options and in the future, to formalize and designate public green spaces for use by people and their off-leash dogs.

We can learn from other cities: San Francisco, New York and many other municipalities have long provided courtesy hour policies as a formal keystone of public park rules and regulations. These cities permit dogs (escorted by owners) to run off leash in certain designated areas when parks are open (usually before 9 a.m. until after 9 p.m. or when parks close.) This comes at little expense: details are shared via signage, city websites and public flyers. Adiran Benepe, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation has written, Over the past twenty years, this policy has kept parks and neighborhoods safer, allowed owners to exercise and socialize their dogs, and reduced the number of dog bites.

Every signor of this petition is a resident of Baltimore City that agrees with the following statement:

We support ordinance 09-0322 Leash Law Environmental and Civil Citations introduced for the purpose of reducing the Baltimore City leash law fines, recently increased by ordinance 08-0050 in January 2009. We further request that our City Council consider supporting and implementing new ways to make our city dog friendly and maximize citizen enjoyment of our public green spaces.

[Many of us who support this new reduced-fine leash law want to attend the open public hearing scheduled at 10:00am April 28, 2009 at City Hall, and are aware that to enter and hear the proceedings, we must bring a picture I.D. and sign-in if we plan to testify.]