By Peter Shopay Santa Monica
Regarding Don Johnson’s letter (SMDP, April 15, page 4), please correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t we talking about Dockweiler State Beach? Not Santa Monica, Venice, or any of the local city beaches? The beach that sits in front of no homes and is in the flight path of all planes from LAX, keeping it 90-percent empty all year round? Why has it become such a big deal to put a dog beach here? This is the most under used beach in Southern California.
Opponents of the dog beach claim the animals will make a mess out of the beach, turn it into “chaos.” Where are the facts behind these claims? It’s not as if this is the first experimental “dog area” in a city. Dog parks and dog beaches don’t create problems. Just look at the very clean and successful Huntington dog beach. For all naysayers, please take a drive and see for yourself. How about all the local dog parks? They are cleaner, more pleasant places than many of our non dog friendly parks. The truth is, most dog owners are overly responsible and clean up after their animal, and for those few owners who don’t, the city does their part. After all, the city is used to cleaning up after certain “people,” because none of them have owners to pick up after them.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 19, 2005. Read the original PDF.