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| Photo by GM Wiegand |
Regular users of the Eastside Dog Park were startled to find a children's gym set up in the dog park. No explanation - it just appeared.
Dog owners were extremely concerned.
Was this supposed to be for the dogs? If so, it was dangerous.
Was the plan to share the dog park with children? Even more dangerous. There was an incident last year in the Edmonds Dog Park when a mother brought her dog and her toddlers to the dog park. The toddlers started running and the dogs started chasing them.
Fortunately, the dog owners were able to restrain the dogs, but everyone was shaken by the incident.
Someone called the Shoreline Parks department. They sent a staff person to check it out. Parks took it down and hauled it away immediately.
The mystery remains. Someone went to the trouble in disassembling the play structure from its original location, hauling it to the dog park, and reassembling it.
Was it a prank?
Did someone think they were doing a good deed, reusing an unwanted play structure by placing it in a barren looking park?
Don't know.
The park is back to normal. Dogs can safely run free. No children will be attracted to the dog park (and hopefully no mothers or fathers will bring them).
So, are you saying that we shouldn't bring kids to a dog park? How about we all take a little more responsibility for supervising both our children and our dogs when we're there - a dog park is not an excuse to let either run unsupervised. And frankly the Eastside dog "park" is nothing more than a weed infested derelict mud pit with a fence.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe a parent was making a passive aggressive complaint about the dog owners who use other playgrounds as offleash dog parks without regard to the posted signs or kids there. Unfortunately, people using dog parks probably isn't the right audience.
ReplyDeleteToo bad whomever assembled the playground equipment didn't put it outside the fence in the empty lot - it would still be there - dogs on one side, kids on the other, win win win!
ReplyDeleteNo you shouldnt bring kids to a dog park. This coming from a mom of 3 kids and a dog owner. We do one or the other but never mix the two (dog park with dog, kid park with kids). And a (fenced in) derelict weed infested mud pit is all a dog needs!
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