NYC Hearts Dogs!

By Amy Fernandez

New York City is never gonna win any awards for warm and fuzzy places to live.  It certainly has its drawbacks, but for millions of residents it’s an okay tradeoff; which brings me to dogs. Logistically, keeping dogs in NYC has its share of challenges. That doesn’t imply that they’re not welcome. A recent legal standoff has made it abundantly clear that we love our dogs and they are not going anywhere.

As we know, Covid led to a massive spike in pet ownership everywhere, and NYC accounted for a good portion of that number. We will probably never know the exact numbers but at least one determined (and possibly bored) journalist took on the task of counting them. Writing for Medium, he explained that he compiled numbers based on a combination of NYC dog license applications, city shelter records and Google trends. Not scientific but probably the most ambitious and accurate inventory we’re likely to get.

Anyway, lots of people acquired their first (or second or third) dog during lockdown and wealthier neighborhoods accounted for more new pets overall. No surprise there.

What has been surprising is the backlash from Grinchy types looking for something to complain about. Here’s an example. A young, newly elected city councilman for one of those neighborhoods decided that a derelict strip of city property running through his district would make an ideal dog run for his constituents. The land has been an ongoing source of trouble for decades, attracting crime and rats as neglected properties tend to do. He saw this is a way to solve two problems.

Then, to quote from a Times story on this unexpected neighborhood war, “Dissent mounted.” Mostly noise complaints about barking. And really…does anyone actually move to NYC looking for tranquility. Another major whine was the chaotic nature of dogs running around a park, which was equally laughable when considered in context.  (Yeah, try crossing Pelham Parkway if you want some chaos).

The whiners had their say and the dog park went ahead, although they are still trying to close it down. The interesting part is that once this local nonsense hit the news-WOW! The dog-loving NYC public has made their stance clear. And the interesting part is that a lot of the pro-dog arguments are coming from people who don’t even actually own one.

Here’s a sample. “I live on the Upper West Side, and the noise is usually from car alarms, scooters, motorcycles, but not dogs…life in New York has become challenging but dogs only enhance our happiness.”  Another resident said, “New York would be a much less friendly place without them.” A lot of people remarked that, noisy or not, the presence of dogs on city streets actively deters crime.  And of course, NYC is full of health nuts and they also came out full force for the dogs. It helped that these “volatile community meetings” coincided with an avalanche of new studies reaffirming the health benefits of dog ownership. By some ironic twist of fate, a bunch of studies previously published in JAMA going back to 2017 were reviewed in the November 22 Washington Post which summed them up saying, “The good news is that, with rare exceptions, there is no downside.”

So, I am happy to report that dogs have won this latest NYC battle!

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=254161

Posted by Liz on Dec 26 2022. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.