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The conditions at the Park Slope dog run have gotten downright unsanitary, according to dog owners who regularly visit the run, and things are only bound to get worse as the weather warms. Dog owners charge that, in addition to the general unpleasantness, the urine-soaked wood chips are to blame for giving their furry friends parasites and diarrhea. The Parks Department confirms that all is not as it should be. J.J. Byrne Park manager Eric Greene said they haven’t been changed since November. “I don’t want to change them at all because it’s all going to be under construction,” he said, referring to the new park Boymelgreen has promised to start building next month because part of the old one was used as a staging area to construct The Novo. Nevertheless, Greene said compaints have prompted the Parks Department to drop off wood chips beside the park within two weeks. This time volunteers are supposed to change them. (Normally, he said, the department does most of the work, removing the fence and lugging out special equipment to change the paw padding. “It’s very time-consuming.”) Tony Chiappelloni, president of FIDO, an off-leash advocacy group for Prospect Park, said, “Personally I think small dog runs are basically unhealthy.”
Extreme Makeover Planned for J.J. Byrne Park [Brownstoner]


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  1. 7:13 & 8:02 – I am glad to hear your pets are active and well cared for. Unfortunately that is not the majority of cases from what I have seen. Including several roomates that worked from 8 AM to 8 PM and barely had time to take the dog out once for 5 minutes. On my way to work downtown, I see lots o yups in suits with their dog, letting it shit or piss on the sidewalk and then trod off to their hedge fund or investment bank job for the next 10+ hours.

    I think the scenario you describe 7:13 is very rare in this city and given the current self-centered me generation, I find it hard to beleive the vast majority of the twenty and thirty somethings with dogs actually give them more than 10 min. of attention a day.

  2. And just to add to 7:53. Dogs don’t really care how big their territory is — my 45 pound mutt spends most of her time at home sleeping in small spaces underneath things anyway — but they like to go out, they like to travel by foot, and they like to meet other dogs. City dogs, by neccesity, get much more of this than suburban dogs confined to their yads (though not necessarily as much as, say, farm dogs). In my case, she’s out doing what makes her happiest a good two hours a day — more than most people I know.

  3. The life of MY city dogs is nothing like the one you describe, 5:33. Although I hate myself for responding what is almost certainly a BS post designed to wind up dog owners, here goes:

    From 7:45 to 9AM we hit the park and they run and play with other dogs. At 9:30 they eat and are then free to do as they please ( usually sleep at my feet while I work). Another walk at around 2:30, another around 6. Dinner, sleep, play, hang out. They have free run of the backyard. A final walk before bed and then we all hit the hay, them in their beds on the floor at the foot of our bed.

    MUCH better than my friends’ dogs in the suburbs who never leave their yard/house and are insanely territorial and dog aggressive.

  4. if i ever run into you sanctimonious shitbirds in any way and hear any of you express audibly the crap you dare write on this blog i will personally rip off your heads and shit down your throats.

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