YiLu
aa: Yes there are non-profits doing a lot of the heavy lifting to identify suitable sites for dog parks in this area. They are running into a lot of red tape but are doing an awesome job of surveying locations and putting it in front of city leadership. Check out WSDPC- they are great folks! https://westseattleblog.com/2022/02/another-dog-park-for-west-seattle-heres-whos-actually-working-on-it/
Gina: Most school playgrounds and fields are actually attached Seattle parks that the school has privileged access to and are patrolled accordingly.
What makes Madison Middle School different is that the school actually owns the field so it isn’t patrolled as regularly. To request patrols, Animal control needs 10 days of reports to justify it. Madison Middle School was placed on elevated status in the fall of 2021 (and I believe again in Spring 2022) when it came to their attention that there were often 25-30+ dogs on the field at a time after hours and after receiving enough reports to justify it. They sent out a lot of citations and skipped warnings because of how bad the issue was.
Unfortunately, the Schools don’t have the enforcement arm necessary to enforce a dog ban (which is in place at this location, not at all locations) so they rely on Animal Control to enforce off-leash laws instead. School staff and leadership are understandably frustrated at this situation, especially when they themselves are ignored when they ask people to take their dogs off the field.
What is worse is that several of the off-leash dog owners that use this location are willing to escalate against those who confront them about their behavior or testify in court against them (as witnesses subpoenaed by the city).
The community needs to do something, or the school needs to make dog park hours so parents know when it is safe to take their kids there to play.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by YiLu.