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Arboretum goats attacked by unleashed dog
By adamg on Wed, 09/28/2016 - 4:03pm
Jamaica Plain News reports the guy, who at least stuck around, had been spotted before letting his dogs do whatever the hell they want in the Arnold Arboretum.
The Arboretum brought the goats in earlier this month as natural weed fighters. They work behind a fence that's supposed to be electrified.
This isn't the first time an irresponsible dog owner has caused havoc in the Arboretum. Last year, unleashed dogs killed a great blue heron.
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Comments
Many dogs are never leashed
whenever we go to the Arboretum. I wonder what an effective penalty would be. Dogs don't have license plates like cars do. Take a photo and impound a repeat-offender dog? Seems like relying on owners' compliance is not effective.
unleashed dogs in ARB
Yes folks, take pics of the owners of any unleashed dogs!! Especially the flagrant repeaters. It's a start.
no enforcement
Whenever I've gone to the arboretum, without fail, you see a dog not on a leash. Can anyone contradict that?
And do what?
And do what with the photos? Post them on Instagram?
Natural Selection
Allow me to bring an unleashed puma. Problem solved.
Don't think that would end well for the goats...
They're probably tastier than dogs.
Checkpoints
Like for drunk drivers. Police, animal control with wagon. Stop every dog for proof of registration and vaccination. Impound all dogs who fail, require compliance for release.
There's probably a huge overlap between folks who don't think leash laws don't apply to them and folks who don't think registration and vaccination laws don't apply to them. Make public spaces sufficiently unacommodating to these people and those remaining will be the responsible dog owners.
Will Certain Dogs Be Targeted In Your "Stop And Frisk" Solution?
( while other dogs are treated with "Stop and Friskies"? )
The owners of unleashed dogs in the Arboretum are responsible.
The owners of these unleashed dogs in the arboretum should be held responsible, and at least made to pay a fine for the damage that their dogs do or have done. Hit the owners of such dogs where it hurts the most....in their pocketbooks! Hopefully, that would teach them a lesson!
Haiku for Bad Dog Owners
Dog owner asshole
Does not care about others
People like you suck
Predictable
I bet the dog douche only stuck around because he couldn't figure out how to get his little fecal vector out of the electric fence.
Let the 'not my dog' posts commence
I get that there are tons of responsible dogs who can be let off the leash. Unfortunately, you could say the same thing about drivers - most of them won't run red lights, text while driving, etc... In an ideal world, you'd get a different license for having a dog of a leash showing that your dog was trained or something but in reality that would unworkable.
Anyways, this is garage dog owner and they should be fined $1000. The dog that killed the blue heron a while back should have been fired into a volcano along with its owner. But sure, let's give over more precious green space for dog parks.
off topic but..
.. I'm not sure I'd say most drivers don't text and drive, sadly. I've taken to looking out the bus window at cars on my trip home from work to see how many drivers I see holding a phone with their thumb moving around on the keypad, and I'm sorry to report that the number I spot is horrifying.
$50 fine
The owner has been fined $50 ("first-time" offender), dog is being quarantined for 10 days.
Restitution?
He should also have to pay for the medical bills and lost work time for the goats.
lost goat hours
Make him pick the weeds?
I just spit my coffee across
I just spit my coffee across the room
Now thats
Restorative justice
Even better:
Make him do the weed removal himself. Since goats often get brought in when there's so much poison ivy that no sane landscaper would get near it without a haz-mat suit, I think the punishment would fit perfectly.
Acceleration
Just the type of thing that will get dogs banned.
OF COURSE a border collie
OF COURSE a border collie went after the herd of livestock. We humans have been breeding them to do that for thousands of years. And anyone who's ever seen a herding dog demo knows they can jump any reasonable fence. And without training as a herding dog, it's totally not surprising that it injured the goats.
This dog owner sucks. Dogs shouldn't be offleash in the arboretum, and most people who don't own a working farm shouldn't own working dogs, no matter how cute they are.
Very predictable
Just waiting now for a kid to be bit. They've now moved down the street and have taken over the lower part of Fallon Field.
I see what you did there.
I see what you did there.
Electrified Fence
A couple of weekends ago I spent a little time at the goat station, and a bird perched comfortably on the top wire of the fence for several minutes before flying off. The article (which I think has been updated since Adam originally posted) suggests the fence may not be at full capacity due to the overcast weather. Though apparently the dog actually jumped over the fence?
no ground
if you touch an electric fence, you will not get a shock unless you are standing on the ground to complete the circuit.
bird on a wire = not grounded
Former farm kid here - if you're not grounded, an electrified fence doesn't do much of anything.
My brother and I had seriously-thick rubber soled work boots and used to abuse our suburban cousins when they came to visit by grabbing the fence and then reaching out and touching them.
We'd feel a little bit of a shock, but they would get blasted. Hilarious!
I assume the overcast comment in the article is because the fence is solar charged. But these work by keeping a big car/marine battery topped off. The fence itself will run for at least a week or two just on the juice in the battery - especially a short run like around a pen. These systems are designed to energize miles of fence.
Someone missed the middle
Someone missed the middle-school physics classes? Ever wonder how birds are able to congregate on power lines?
Soooo Boring
Middle school science was all boring lab work in my day-my friends and I persuaded our science teachers (this was a very large combined 6th 7th and 8th grade class) to let us "study" in the lecture room, where in reality we spent most of the class period playing cards, and never got caught. We'd split up the lab assignments when they were due.
I don't know why you are bringing up physics, but yeah, I hated it, especially volleyball.
This makes me angry.
I walk my dog in the Arboretum twice a day on leash. After whatever happened to the heron, I had people yelling at me about why dogs should be on leashes when my dog was on a leash. Now this will happen again.
I walk in the main part of the Arb not on Peters Hill where the goats are. That part of the park is noted for many dogs off leash. The problem there is much worse than in the main part. That's why I don't often go there or Millennium. There's nothing scarier than an unknown dog charging your dog who is on a leash, is small but feisty, if challenged.
(And for any parents of small children out there--can you tell your kids not to suddenly run up and surround a dog trying to touch him? That's scarier than the loose dog, both for the dog and the owner.)
I'm so tired of dealing with bad dog owners and the consequences caused for responsible owners.
The new proposed dog park in Hyde Park at the edge of Stonybrook on the unused site of a former school will not be taking green space away from anyone. Please support it.
If only we had some sort of
If only we had some sort of park keeper, or ranger.......
Oh wait we do, they are just ineffective do nothings, i challenge you all to find out just how many off leash dog ordinance citations have been written there and in general around city of boston parks. Again do nothing rangers, but they sure are motivated to keep and fundraise for expenisve horses for the whims of the boston brahmin . Getting rid of some horses equals another more rangers, if they want to be mobile ride a bike. Nit from the comfor of gas guzzling idle vehicles.
Boston Park rangers
have been patrolling pretty often when I walk. Though they seem to park for long stretches then move a bit and park some more. They would be better off driving or walking around or just staying in the area where most violations occur. Though they seem to look for only off-leash dogs and not other park violations--riding bikes on unpaved paths and grass, climbing trees, etc.
I hear about people getting tickets but it's always second-hand.
Trust me, former BPR ranger :
Trust me, former BPR ranger :)
rangers only patrol from 8 to
rangers only patrol from 8 to 5 pm. whats the point, when most snobby snotty shitty dog people are out during evening hours. if they really wanted to make a statement they would. but its easier to be reactive than proactive i guess
Jeez
First of all, Harvard owns the Arboretum not the Parks Dept. And second, have you been there? It's huge. Having a staff member there patrolling for dogs at all times would be...you'd have to have ten of them.
I'm hoping that this incident helps move things forward--there should be an off-leash dog park and people should feel more comfortable telling dog owners to leash their dogs.
Clarification
The City of Boston owns the Arboretum and it is a city park. That is why Boston Park Rangers patrol it and not the Harvard University police force. Harvard has a 999-year lease to manage and use the Arboretum for botanical research in exchange for maintaining it as a park open to residents. Minor point but worth knowing the distinction.
I'm in the Arboretum a lot with my leashed dogs. The Rangers are there, I do see them frequently. Unfortunately, they're understaffed and underfunded, so their manpower is limited in such a large area to cover. People know the rules and blatantly disregard them. The people in the Arboretum need to start politely telling lawbreakers that they need to leash their dogs, apply community pressure and make them uncomfortable.
OK--my mistake
I actually don't go there that often and rarely to the Peter's Hill area and I can't remember ever seeing rangers, just the horticultural staff. But really--as much as I'd like to see more rangers in all of the parks, we're agreed that it's unrealistic to expect enough ranger activity to enforce this. Community pressure is the key, I think. And providing a reasonable alternative for off-leash dogs will help, I hope.
Trust me whenever it gets
Trust me whenever it gets enforced you yuppies bitched and moaned about the big bad ranger, FOH lady
Who pissed in your Cheerios?
You seem to have a real people personality. I hope you found another job that didn't involve dealing with the public.
lol its my calling, hate all
lol its my calling, hate all you want but i deal with entitled clueless people like you on a daily basis, then you all were the first to come ask me for assistance in finding your shitty dog.
I jog there religiously and have hurdled many dogs, yours will be no exception.
furthermore, when dealing with the multivariable bostonian public one's personality becomes hip to the bullshit. i.e your silly rationalizations for unleashing your pseudochild. so spare me your pearl clutching. All you got is emotion, and nary a fact, as highlighted by your earlier post re:"harvard land".you got nothing!
Here we go again
You choose to have a dog in the city. Why does the city owe you a dog park, never mind an off leash dog park? Go fund and build you own private park instead of asking the taxpayers to do in for you. Or let your dog loose in your fenced yard as some do.
Sally you admitted a couple of years ago on Uhub that you let your dog wander off leash in the Arboretum. You claimed that you were special and that you only did it when no one was near. But that's the problem. The majority of dog walkers in the Arboretum feel entitled to violate the law when they see fit, because precious Fido is an exception.
If you're going to be a psycho-stalker
At least do it thoroughly. I believe I admitted that I occasionally let my small senior dog off leash, though rarely in the Arboretum, cleaned up without fail, and that I wasn't going to do it anymore on principle after the heron incident.
I'm really sorry that my posts bothered you so much that you recall them years later. Maybe a pet of some kind would help you be happier and less stressed.
There just isn't enough room
There just isn't enough room and open spaces for the increase in dog owners in that kind of environment, and the number keeps increasing.
Move to the suburbs if you want suburban space for you dog. With more constructions means less open space, so all that growth creates these kinds of issues.
Um, no
Most of the construction is tear down or reuse. No parks are being sold off.
More construction = More people
Means everything gets more crowded. Complicated stuff I know.
Population was much higher in the 20th Century
Historical population
Year Pop. ±%
1722 10,567 —
1765 15,520 +46.9%
1790 18,320 +18.0%
1800 24,937 +36.1%
1810 33,787 +35.5%
1820 43,298 +28.1%
1830 61,392 +41.8%
1840 93,383 +52.1%
1850 136,881 +46.6%
1860 177,840 +29.9%
1870 250,526 +40.9%
1880 362,839 +44.8%
1890 448,477 +23.6%
1900 560,892 +25.1%
1910 670,585 +19.6%
1920 748,060 +11.6%
1930 781,188 +4.4%
1940 770,816 −1.3%
1950 801,444 +4.0%
1960 697,197 −13.0%
1970 641,071 −8.1%
1980 562,994 −12.2%
1990 574,283 +2.0%
2000 589,141 +2.6%
2010 617,594 +4.8%
2015 667,137 +8.0%
* = population estimate.
Source: United States Census records and Population Estimates Program data.
U.S. Decennial Census
Irrelevant. Far less development back that.
Also, that's just for the municipality proper, and you had far more people per housing unit back then.
Uh, no. There's article here
Uh, no. There's article here recently talking about woodland being turned into housing development.
Also, dog ownership rates are higher today, and with more people means more going to the same locations.
just stop being scared of coyotes
If you support a healthy population of coyotes, then all the unleashed dogs and outdoor cats will disappear. Trust me, out west all the suburbs have coyotes and no strays. no rats either.
Dogs must be leashed at all
Arboretum website
Dogs are supposed to be leashed in the Arboretum, period. And, sorry dog lovers-- I like dogs, too-- but I think the Arboretum should just ban dogs now. Off-leash dogs screwing up something in the Arboretum has become a regular event. And off-leash dogs crap in places that the owners don't see, causing a different problem. As other posts pointed out, there's no good way to police it.
As well intentioned as the idea of taking pictures of scofflaws is, it also could easily cause a whole other set of problems. Those pictures do no good unless the gate is guarded and the irresponsible dog owners aren't allowed in, or the Arboretum posts them on their website, which is inviting trolling and complications.
And before anyone jumps in with, "But that's punishing all dog owners for the actions of a few," this is another situation where people have been invited to have the privilege of enjoying something, only to have a handful of people abuse that privilege so badly that it is burdensome to allow the invitation to stand.
That's too bad. But, it's not up to Harvard to install cameras or hire extra staff so that people can walk their dogs-- for free-- on their sensitive land.
As has been pointed out already
It's not Harvard land. Though I am in favor of just banning dogs there. I have a dog and I wont walk her through the arboretum because of the unleashed dog problem.
I don't get why they aren't ever ticketing. That fixes a problem and generates revenue for the city.