Revised Leash Ordinance Goes into Effect Sept. 1
Electronic collars no longer considered physical restraint.
The leash will soon be the law in Alexandria.
Earlier this month, City Council voted to adopt an ordinance that excludes electronic collars as means of restraining dogs, meaning dogs must be on a physical leash while in public places like parks and sidewalks.
The ordinance goes into effect on Sept. 1 and violators can be fined up to $100.
Council initially adopted the law as proposed by the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria in November. The ordinance was rescinded a month later after dog owners and local businesses such as the Olde Towne School for Dogs raised concerns. Several argued that the law did not consider owners who spend a lot of time, money and effort to train their dogs on electronic collars.
The Animal Welfare League, city staff and stakeholders held a series of meetings to revise the ordinance. The measure passed on June 16 does not pertain to dogs in off-leash dog parks, those participating in obedience training or canines on private property. The sale and use of electronic collars as a form of training will not be affected by the ordinance, but dogs must be on a physical leash while in public.
The ordinance purportedly makes it easier for Animal Control officers as well as citizens to determine if an animal is running at large.
Animal control will begin issuing warnings to owners without a physical leash and urging compliance between now and when the law goes into effect.
What do you think about the ordinance? Tell us in the comments section and take our poll.
LG
11:21 am on Friday, June 29, 2012
I doubt this is really going to have an impact...I see dogs off leash in Del Ray almost every day - both walking through the neighborhood and on the W&OD Greenway/Jefferson Park Trail, which people seem to treat as an off-leash area despite the numerous signs stating it is not. I've never once been told by an owner that the dog has an electronic collar. The response from the owners, almost universally, is "oh, (s)he's friendly." Yes, that may be true. But the properly-on-leash dog your dog runs up to may not be. And some people are just plain afraid of dogs, nice or not.
Leslie Hagan
3:12 pm on Friday, June 29, 2012
People who let their dogs run off lead seem not to realize that when their dogs run up to a dog that is on lead, the on lead dog is put in a very defensive position and thus often reacts in a defensive mode that it would not otherwise adopt. As a result, the person walking the dog on lead is faced with dealing with his/her dog plus a strange dog whose owner may not even be in sight. The results are often not pleasant. Further, when some dogs become truly aggressive, an electric collar may not be sufficient to stop them. No matter how "friendly" an owner may think his/her dog is, there are always circumstances where "friendly" behavior is not going to occur.
Kim Moore
9:29 pm on Monday, July 2, 2012
For years, my son was deathly afraid of dogs. Telling him that a dog is friendly meant nothing to us, or to him.
Now, he enjoys dogs, but not when three are blocking the sidewalk as the owners talk amongst themselves, ignoring that they are blocking others' passage. The same irritation applies to residents with huge strollers who look at us cross-eyed when we ask them to move so that we can pass them.
We are dog-conscious, and when we needed them, were stroller-conscious. Other residents?...not so much.