Police this month issued a verbal warning to a Norwalk woman following an altercation at the dog run in Waveny.
According to the complainant—a Stamford man—the woman at about 8 a.m. on Aug. 1 (a Sunday) had confronted him at Spencer’s Run and “was being rude and aggressive toward him, stating he has a black heart,” police said in an incident report.
The woman, who has a dog named ‘Tate’ “has been creating a disturbance at the dog park for several weeks,” according to the incident written by New Canaan Police Officer Sebastian Obando and obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request.
The complainant met in the lobby with Obando and Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm on the morning of Aug. 4.
Halm during the interview “confirmed that she has been hearing of possible issues” regarding a woman who fit the description presented by the complainant.
The man “stated all dog owners at the park are asked when their dog poops, to place it in a bag and leave it at the entrance of the dog park so that it is not forgotten when the dog owner leaves. [The complainant] states that the woman takes the bags and flings them outside the dog park and at times caused the bags to rip open. [The complainant] states that the female’s dog, Tate has an issue where he plays with the poop bags that are left inside the dog park and at times even grabs the bag from other dog owners.”
Police told the complainant that they would contact the woman and inform her that she risked losing her access to Spencer’s Run if the behavior continued, according to the incident report.
Based on the name of the dog, police identified the owner and spoke to her later that morning, the report said.
During the call, police “informed [the woman] that she was being put on notice to cease any verbal altercations she is having with other dog owners,” it said.
Police told the woman her permit would be removed if the problem continues.
The woman told police that “the reason she moves the poop bags from inside the dog park to outside the dog park is because Tate has as tendency to go after the poop bags and that there is no nearby garbage pail to throw out the bags,” the report said.
“I informed [the woman] that she would have to contact the Parks and Rec Department to see if they can place a garbage pail nearby the dog park to help with the issue,” it said.
The woman acknowledged with police that she had been in a confrontation on Aug. 1 and said she would refrain from doing so in the future.
Why not have a garbage can nearby the dog run for dog waste- be it inside or just outside?
So glad this issue has been addressed as it’s been making fellow dog park members uncomfortable for a long time.
While this story has no heroes, at least the “he” is a dog.
Or is he? Must click to find out.
It seems like Tate’s owner was causing the disturbance and not Tate. From the complaint it seems like Tate was trying to assist in keeping the dog park clean. Maybe Tate has an obsessive compulsive disorder and needs our understanding. I would agree that a barrel by the gate instead of a “poop shelf” would be better. I gave up on taking our dogs to the dog park because it became too complex. My dogs could not remember the vast number of regulations nor could I. The departure process from the park was nerve-racking and I could see how one could easily forget to grab
their poop bag from the “poop shelf”. With a number of bags accumulating it could be hard to identify which was your dogs. You would not want to grab the wrong bag. I don’t even want to get into the fact that all of the poop bags are plastic and damaging to the environment.
I can assure you the human parent to Tate is 90% of the problem. She is abrasive and needs to help her dog with the issue of eating poop in poop bags and stealing them from people. It’s dangerous for Tate and I’m sure he’s had multiple vet visits. The protocols that are set up in the dog park are there for everyone’s safety.