Glenview’s dog-leash law safeguards public safety, especially in parks. Dog-poop on a soccer or football field, a playground, or a walkway contaminates them with Escherichia coli, bacteria found in the intestines of mammals, with hundreds of strains causing illness in humans, identified by the US Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Requiring dog owners to scoop their dog’s poop safeguards the public from illness.

Walking dogs on-leash safeguards the public from dog attacks. Dogs, domesticated descendants of wolves, are naturally aggressive. Large or small dogs can-and-do inflict damaging bites to humans, and maulings are common in communities without leash-laws.

A leash gives the dog-owner or dog-walker increased control of the animal, and restricting the length to 8 feet limits the distance the animal is from the owner-walker and the time it takes to reign the animal in if it becomes aggressive near another person.

Dog-owners are responsible to exercise their dogs and have a right to public access, and safeguarding the public from illness and dog attacks is socially responsible. With regard to public hygiene and safety, City Ordinance 345 Section, 20.1 accommodates the rights of dog-owners and other community members–elderly, professionals, students, athletes, women and children–who use the parks for sport and recreation, who have a right to a clean, safe park.

Shaun Hoffmeyer