Big delays in plan to curb off-leash dogs at schools
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A sign with new stickers at King-Chavez charter school. Photo: Claire Trageser/Axios
It's gotten much harder to report off-leash dogs and their scofflaw owners who use San Diego school fields and don't clean up their mess.
Why it matters: Some school fields have been riddled with holes and dog poop since the pandemic, when people got used to letting their pups run free. Now that kids are back on the fields, the doggy detritus has been an incessant problem.
Catch up quick: People and their pups can use school fields in the afternoons and evenings but are supposed to keep dogs on leash and clean up after them.
- That doesn't always happen, San Diego Unified spokesperson Samer Naji told Axios in November.
- Some schools even have extra pairs of shoes on hand to give to kids who step in doggy droppings, he said.
Here's why reporting dogs is suddenly so hard:
- The city contracts with the Humane Society for animal services. Their officers used to patrol fields and write tickets for off-leash dogs, but budget cuts ended that last year.
- The signs at school fields across the city still tell people to call the Humane Society to report off-leash dogs, but officials confirmed they are no longer responding to such calls.
- City staff are adding new stickers to the signs telling people to report off-leash dogs through the city's Get It Done app.
- But the app and website still don't have a way to file such reports.
The app fail is all a tad academic, since only five out of 107 fields have the new stickers, city spokesperson Benny Cartwright told Axios.
- Cartwright warned that it will "take some time" for the city to update all the signs.
State of play: The city also announced last fall a plan in which residents would police themselves and schools could give out warnings if a field was in bad shape.
- But that also hasn't started yet.
- "I don't have a timeline right now, but hopefully within the next couple of months," Cartwright said.
What's next: The school district "is ready and eager to move forward" with this warning system, Naji told Axios in a statement.
Tell us: Do you have kids or dogs using school fields? Send us your gnarliest pics of fields in disrepair, we might use them in a future story. Email [email protected].