Laurel Canyon Park Dispute : Parents Want Dogs Back on the Leash

A group of Laurel Canyon parents began gathering signatures Wednesday on petitions seeking renewed enforcement of the city’s leash law in a park near their homes that has become a rallying point for dog owners who let their pets run free.

About a dozen women and children, some wearing shirts that bore slogans such as “Give a Dog a Bone Not a Park,” handed the petition to passing motorists outside the Wonderland Avenue School in Laurel Canyon before school.

One of the women, Pam Gelles, said the group gathered about 200 signatures.

The petition, which they plan to give Councilman Michael Woo later this month, calls on Woo to order the Animal Regulation Department to eliminate the leash-free atmosphere in tiny Laurel Canyon Park at the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains above Studio City. It also appeals to Woo to oppose a recommendation to put a municipal dog run in the park.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved the concept of establishing leash-free areas in some city parks and is expected to vote in May on a proposal to put the first experimental dog run in Laurel Canyon Park.

Paradise for Dogs

For more than two years, the park has been a point of contention between city animal control officials and dog owners, who say that they reclaimed the park from vandals and thugs and created a one-of-a-kind paradise for dogs.

The parents contend that the loose dogs have ruined the park for them.

The dispute arose when members of a dog owners’ group, ParkWatch, protested the construction of a kiddie playground area, fearing that it would lead to their expulsion from the park.

Councilman Joel Wachs, who represented the mountain community before last year’s City Council reapportionment, proposed establishing dog runs--large, fenced-in areas--in city parks.

Although Wachs said he did not want Laurel Canyon Park to be considered for a dog run, the Animal Regulation Commission and then the Recreation and Parks Commission recommended the park as the site of the first one. That proposal has been sent to the Recreation and Parks Committee of the council, on which Wachs sits as chairman.

About the time the playground was being built, tensions at the park increased when animal control officers attempted to crack down on illegal use of the park as a dog run by issuing citations to violators. Angry dog owners jammed a commission meeting in May, 1985, to protest that the officers were using “storm trooper” tactics, verbally and physically assaulting dog owners.

Enforcement Halt Ordered

The Animal Regulation Commission later ordered the enforcement to stop.

Since then, dogs have once again come to dominate the four-acre park, with as many as 50 running loose at a time on weekends.

Gelles, who belongs to an organization called the Laurel Canyon Parents’ Assn., complained that the resurgence of loose dogs forced her group to abandon its Saturday picnics and a child play group in the park.

“We haven’t been up there for months,” Gelles said. “We want Animal Regulation to be given instructions to come back up and enforce the leash law so we can use it again.”

Gelles said the group has a meeting scheduled March 26 with Woo, who now represents the area. Until then, she said, the group will continue gathering signatures in front of shopping centers and at Woo’s Studio City office.