Dogs yearn to be free; residents object

Posted at 12:04 PM on August 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Life

Massachusetts, the home of 'activist judges' if you're inclined to believe such things, may have another nationwide case on its hands.

The issue? Dogs running free.

In the Boston suburb of Newton, some residents are fighting back against the city's designating a portion of a park as a leash-free zone for dogs, the Boston Globe reports.

''Look! Look!'' said one woman as she eyed a Volkswagon Jetta with an out-of-state license plate. ''What is that plate? Vermont? For all I know, that's a dog-walker. Now they're getting out and the radio is blaring. I don't want to be a meanie and call the cops. But really.''

Really, indeed.

There's always a lawyer ready to take any case and the one the residents hired is making a federal case out of it:

In a letter mailed to Mayor David Cohen last week, Peter F. Harrington, the lawyer retained for an undisclosed fee by Dyer and other residents, warned that adding the off-leash area to the park requires approval from the US Secretary of the Interior. He argued that the off-leash area has decreased the recreational uses of the park, in violation of provisions attached to federal money given by the department for park improvements.

Said one besieged resident:

"Until you live here, you just can't understand.''

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