Off-leash Dog Controversy in Rye Town Park

Rye City Mayor Doug French and Rye City Council member Joe Sack don’t like the Rye Town Park Commission barring off-leash dogs.

Nor do the more than 100 or so responsible dog owners who have complained about the recent ruling. They make up a community group called Dog Owners of RTP (DORTP), the successor to the Dog Friends of RTP.

They feel the RTPC is barking up the wrong tree with its off-leash ruling and unfairly discriminating against responsible dog owners.

French and Sack, both members of the RTPC, were outvoted on the off-leash measure by their out-of-Rye City Commission members by a 3-2 margin on June 21.

Rye’s Suki Van Dijk doesn’t like the recent RTP Commission ruling one bit. Neither do her two black Labradors, Jezebel, 9, and Scarlett, 3, because Suki and her family –hubby Peter and their kids, Miranda, 16, and Jake, 14 -- have been taking their Labs to RTP since they were born –the Labs, that is,  and those Labs have gotten used to running free without incident because their owners are responsible dog owners.

It goes back at least 17 years, maybe even more like 30, perhaps it was even built into the Rye park lore but now off-leash dogs are officially prohibited in Rye Town Park at all hours.

That RTPC decision is hard to swallow for local dog owners hereabouts for various reasons.

RTP is jointly owned by Rye City and Rye Town, with RTP geographically located in Rye City and the commission overseeing the park that stretches along Forest Ave. from Dearborn to Rye Beach Aves.

French and Sack are RTPC members, but they are outnumbered and often outvoted by Rye Town Supervisor Joe Carvin, Mayors Joan Feinstein and Dennis Pilla of Rye Brook and Port Chester respectively, and Commissioner Benedict Salanitro of Rye Neck.

French and Sack voted to allow dogs to run free off-leash in the park from 5-9 a.m. - customary in the past, though that off-leash policy is technically illegal under state law. Carvin, Feinstein and Pilla voted against them, Salanitro abstained.

Both sides have their own takes on the issue, pro and con. Sentiments range from a real community need for off-leash hours in the opinion of the pros and their constituents to safety issues over several dog-related incidents as voiced by the cons and their backers.

No one disputes that 107 warnings have been handed out to dog owners who allowed their dogs to run off-leash in non-designated hours in recent weeks.

Last season, a security guard was bitten while separating two fighting dogs.

For Carvin, the off-leash decision was a safety issue that gained traction. Carvin said, “if an error was made, I’d rather err on the side of safety” even if as it turned out, just a few “bad apples” led to the decision to revoke the informal policy.

“We didn’t overturn any policy legally speaking,” he said. “I never voted to let dogs off the leash in the first place.”

That “don’t look, don’t ask, don’t tell” policy came down from the prior administration of former long-time Rye Mayor Steve Otis.

Carvin pointed out that no other park in the city or town allows off-leash dogs so why should RTP be an exception.

French and Sack have their own take on the off-leash ruling.

"Without an enclosed area for safety, a majority of the commission decided not to retain their off-leash policy which supersedes the NY state leash law,” according to French.

“RTP is one of the few parks that allows dogs at all, and commission members felt they needed to be leashed,” he continued. “In particular, the other mayors on the commission do not let dogs in their own parks even when leashed."

Despite the outcome, French indicated the issue may not be final. "Commissioner Sack and I supported the balance of a pre-9 a.m. policy with stricter enforcement after that hour. There is a real community need and the City will continue to explore its options," said the Rye mayor.

Sack said he wished the RTPC had worked harder and longer on a compromise.

“I think it is a shame that the pre-9 a.m. policy has been wiped out,” he said. ”The law-abiding dog owners have now been swept away along with the offenders. I think the commission could have tried to be more discriminating in fashioning a reasonable solution for everyone."

“The only thing I can really say is I am baffled and disappointed that even though all the people on the Rye Town Park Commission agreed the pilot off-leash 5 to 9 a.m. policy worked perfectly, all the officials not from Rye voted against continuing it," said Suki Van Dijk.

“I'm sorry that the other people on the Commission choose to forgo getting more money into the park with our user fees and thereby reducing the tax burden on others.”