A CAUTIONARY TAIL, PART 2
Readers respond to Ken Hoffman's dog park debacle
Aug 13, 2019, 10:18 am
A CAUTIONARY TAIL, PART 2
This article originally appeared on CultureMap.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about my dog Sally being attacked by three dogs (one owner) at Officer Lucy Dog Park in Bellaire. Admittedly, I was furious when I wrote the column. I am still furious. Despite a big sign with a long list of safety rules, this one person was allowed to bring his three big, violent dogs into that dog park. I managed to get my dog (and me) out of the park safely.
During our ensuing shouting, the owner of the other dogs told me, "I was here first" and "If you don't like it, don't bring your dog in here." The owner was right about one thing. I didn't like it, and I won't bring my dog there.
In fact, I won't bring my dog to any public dog park where there is no supervision, no assurance that vicious and sick dogs aren't present. It's just not worth the risk.
It turns out, I did the smart thing. I did not confront the other dog owner. I called the Bellaire cops. Three officers, plus the city's animal control officer, arrived within 10 minutes. They talked to the owner of the vicious dogs, and he left. The police now have a report with information about this person and his dogs.
In Texas, if a dog harms another dog, the owner could be responsible for the vet bills resulting from his dog attacking another dog. If the owner's dog kills another dog, the owner could be responsible for replacing the dead dog. Yeah, that would make everything okay. Your dog killed my dog, my best friend, the dog I loved like there's no tomorrow … but you're going to give me $50 to get another one?
If that owner's dogs had killed Sally that day, I would have spent that night in jail.
Reader reaction to my column surprised me. I understand that people are passionate about their dogs (nobody more than me) and dog parks are popular. I expected to hear strong defenses of dog parks. That was not the case. Here are some of the responses I received.
Continue on CultureMap to read about the aftermath.
Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a tiebreaking two-run homer for his first major league hit, and the Chicago Cubs swept the Houston Astros with a 3-1 victory on Thursday.
Nico Hoerner had three hits and Mike Tauchman went 1 for 1 with three walks as Chicago won for the fourth time in five games. Hayden Wesneski (2-0) pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings for the win in relief of Javier Assad.
Houston has lost a season-high five straight and eight of nine overall. At 7-19, it is off to its worst 26-game start since it was 6-20 in 1969.
First-year manager Joe Espada was ejected by plate umpire Jansen Visconti in the top of ninth.
Crow-Armstrong was recalled from Triple-A Iowa when Cody Bellinger was placed on the 10-day injured list on Wednesday with two fractured ribs. The 22-year-old outfielder, who is considered one of the team’s top prospects, made his big league debut last year and went 0 for 14 while appearing in 13 games.
He picked a perfect time for his first major league hit.
Houston had a 1-0 lead before Dansby Swanson scampered home on a fielder’s choice grounder for Miguel Amaya in the sixth.
Espada then replaced Rafael Montero with Bryan Abreu, who threw a wild pitch with Crow-Armstrong trying to sacrifice Amaya to second. Crow-Armstrong then drove his next pitch deep to right, delighting the crowd of 29,876 at Wrigley Field.