By Don Johnson Venice
If the city of Santa Monica caves in and opens up one of its large pristine beach areas to be trashed out with enormous deposits of mostly unrecoverable feces and urine by irresponsible dog owners, who will be running their loud barking, annoying animals at all hours of the day and night? What, if anything, will prevent all of the owners of the animal shelters, doggy-daycare facilities and animal hospitals that abound in Westwood and elsewhere from bringing to it hundreds of out-of-the-area animals to add to the chaos to be created? How does anyone tell if an owner bringing a dog there to relieve itself is from Santa Monica, or Malibu, Venice, Culver City, Brentwood, Hollywood, or even from Los Angeles? I guess there will be a whole lot of people joining in on devastating the beach environment around here. And, it would seem fair that all these folks should have their own local areas to trash out.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 15, 2005. Read the original PDF.