The Dog Owners Association is led by President Sharon Blumberg and boasts almost 150 members. Updates and events about the Dog Park are sent out in monthly e-mails by Sharon to Dog Owners Association members.
As of December 2001, there were a number of projects which had been sitting on the back burner, or have been done recently. They are listed below:
On Monday July 22, 2002 at about 4 PM, Henry Plum opened the gate of the small dog area and was entering with his Toy Poodle, Tribble. He heard a female say "Hey, Dude" but that was all he could understand. Within seconds a big brown dog with a white spot on his chest grabbed Tribble's head in its mouth and snapped Tribble's neck. A person in the big dog area called the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary hospital and another arranged for a ride. The perpetrator after stating "I warned you, asshole" refused to wait for the police to arrive. Tribble died enroute to the hospital.
There was no incident report filed because neither Henry nor the owner of the other dog were there when Officer Schwartz arrived.
After contacting the 9th district police, Center City District Police, Fairmount Park Rangers, SPCA and Morris Animal Refuge it was determined that The Philadelphia Animal Care & Control Association (PACCA) was the only agency that could help us.
We contacted Mr. George Stem, Chief of Animal Control who said he would handle all of the legal aspects of the incident. All we needed to do was locate the owner of the dog who killed Tribble. We had thirty days from the date of the incident to find this person and PAACA would charge her with "Harboring of a dangerous animal" . It would then take 3-5 months for a court date to be set and we would need witnesses to appear in court. (There were four witnesses in the dog run at the time of the incident.) Henry would also have one year to press charges in Civil Court to collect for expenses.
Nancy Adler (owner of white standard Poodle Phoenix) put up posters offering $100 reward money for finding the owner of the attacking dog. (A 22 year old woman with blond hair pulled back into a pony tail and tattoos on her arms). (Our thanks to ALL who helped us locate her, especially Bill Askins and Sean Boyer.) Over $200 was collected and was used to pay for a memorial plaque for Tribble since no one wished to claim the reward. This plaque was hung in the small dog area on November 9,2002.
Sharon Blumberg, President of the Dog Owners' Association was interviewed by Mike Dunn of KYW news radio and the piece was aired every half hour on Saturday morning August 3rd. Fox and Channel 17 recorded the Memorial Ceremony for Tribble held the next day.
We identified the owner of this "Dangerous Animal" and PACCA took photos of the dog to show to the Henry and the witnesses. After many, many calls to PACCA and letters to authoritative sources such as the Mayor, City Council and the Press, we have lost hope that anything will be done to bring justice to this incident. PACCA never followed through with showing the photos to anyone and since Henry didn't pursue the issue, the case was dropped.
Randall Hirshhorn, Director of Environmental Health Services for the Health Department was contacted several months ago and he said that "The woman said she didn't have a dog and they had no reason not to believe her." (There was no word of what happened to the photographs that were taken by Officer Terry Phillips)
We continue to recount this incident as a warning to all dog owners:
Our feelings are still with Henry and we hope that he has finally accepted the loss of his "Good Buddy".
The Association's second year brought concrete results, even though many fewer people were working on the issues. By February 2001 the group had dwindled down to four of the original members: Adam Braunstein (President), Karoline Wallace (Secretary). Arnie Zacharias (owner of black and white Mutt Buca) and Sharon Blumberg (owner of the white Bichon Sasha). Monthly meetings were held in the Markward building behind the play ground. The smaller group decided to focus their attention on only a few necessary projects: a bulletin board, a water fountain and the continuing wood chip maintenance. They also decided to meet every other month rather than monthly. In spite of the fact that only four people were doing all the work, they have accomplished the following:
Discussions regarding the need for a Dog Run go back a number of years. The Schuylkill River Park was receiving complaints from neighbors about dogs illegally running off-leash. The central area was referred to as 'The Bowl' because dog use had wiped out the grass and it looked like a dust bowl. Park users were bothered by the dogs and by the waste that some owners did not pick up. There was a conflict of usage problem.
In February of 1993 an ad hoc committee was formed from members of the board of the Friends of Schuylkill River Park (FSRP) to try to solve this problem. By March they had drafted a questionnaire to be sent to FSRP members and to be handed out to users of the park asking about park usage.
In September the questionnaire results were tabulated from the 93 responses and the general consensus was: Running and walking were the preferred use of the park. The Park was used 2-5 times per day, mostly in the afternoon. Most park users lived within 3 blocks of the park. The majority favored prohibition of off-leash dogs Off-leash dogs should be restricted to certain hours
In November of 1993 the following Points of Consensus were formulated and distributed by volunteers to dog owners (it could not be posted due to conflict with the law):
In spite of the release of the Points, dogs still ran off leash and attempts at reseeding the Park failed. Dog owners were given leaflets asking them not to let their dogs loose in the Park and some were ticketed for non compliance. These problems continued until 1997.
In January 1997 a petition was sent to the Mayor requesting a fenced-in Dog Run. This petition was forwarded to the Fairmount Park Commission.
Fairmount Park gave their permission in May of 1998. An allocation of $10,000 was then created by the FSRP to provide for fencing, benches, trash cans and new signs. The current perimeter fence was erected two months later in June at a cost of $5,600. The official opening was on July 9, 1998.
The new millennium brought a new organization. As they had done in the past with the community gardens, the FSRP Board was looking to create a special group to handle all the issues related to dogs in the Park. A special Board meeting was called, specifically inviting dog owners and all those interested in participating in a new association. Those who showed up and agreed became the Dog Owners' Association. So the first Association meeting took place in January of 2000. A president (Adam Braunstein, owner of the chocolate Lab Max) and secretary (Susan Neuman, owner of the Weimaraner Dash) were named and others volunteered to work with the group.
By March the Association's web site was up and running. It was created, paid for and maintained by Karoline Wallace (owner of the black Shepherd Steve and the beige Cockapoo Amber) until the end of 2003. The monthly meetings in 2000 were well attended. They were hosted by Maryanne Conheim (owner of the Belgian Shepherd Rajah) at her Gallery at 23rd & Pine Streets. For details on those meetings, see Meeting Minutes.
