Anchorage Daily News

Dog owners facing a new law banning their four-legged pals from ball fields got a reprieve from the Anchorage Assembly this week, but they're on a short leash to clean up their act or else.

For months, the Assembly has been considering whether to allow organized baseball leagues, which maintain the fields, to ban all dogs from fenced city ball parks. This was a revised version of an earlier proposal to make all sports fields, fenced or not, dog-free zones. Both were introduced by Chairman Dan Coffey, a Little League coach who's tired of scraping dog deposits off kids' baseball shoes.

In addition, Assemblyman Matt Claman proposed jacking up fines, from $150 to $450 for multiple offenders, for littering in parks and sports fields. And littering includes poop.

The real key to de-pooping this town, according to a new doo-doo annihilation plan, is to increase awareness through things like a Poop Patrol and an annual Poop Parade -- with untold costume potential.

Patty Ginsburg is co-chair of People & Pets in Public Spaces, an offshoot of the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Animal Control Advisory Board, which presented the plan to the Assembly. She doesn't see the sense of passing a new ordinance when poop abandonment is already against the law.

"Nobody thinks you ought to be spending property taxes on policing dog poop," she said. "That's just nuts. And even with the improved version it's still divisive. It gives one user group exclusive use over municipal assets."

The dozens of dog lovers who showed up at Tuesday's Assembly meeting bought themselves some time when lawmakers agreed to shelve the matter.

Coffey said he's willing to give the plan a year to see if it makes a difference.

"OK, we'll give everybody a chance to be a good citizen. If you aren't, we're going to pass these ordinances, he said. "If people were good neighbors, we wouldn't need laws like this. Pick up after your dog, you bum."

So now dog people have to deliver.

POOP HAPPENS

Anchorage has an estimated 65,000 dog-poop factories, which crank out more than 10 tons of the stuff a day, according to the Anchorage Waterways Council. Left as fertilizer, it washes fecal coliform bacteria into the city's storm drains, lakes and streams, creating water quality issues.

For years the council has led the Scoop the Poop campaign. The PPIPS plan would "ratchet it up," Ginsburg said, emphasizing the need to seek and destroy poop wherever poop occurs.

The plans call for a Poop Patrol similar to the Anchorage Trail Watch program, with volunteers wearing "Prevent the Poop" vests, and maybe even accompanied by costumed dogs.

These poop stalkers need to attract attention, says Barbara Hood, former PPIPS co-chair.

"Leaving it for somebody else to deal with isn't fair," she said. "They need to see, 'Yes, we're doing our civic duty. But we're also covering for you.' "

And then there's the Poop Parade idea, featuring Poop Patrol volunteers and dogs in outfits. Or maybe something along the lines of the Duct Tape Ball, Hood said, only with gowns and accessories made of those orange dog-do disposal bags.

The Prevent the Poop component of the plan aims to convince dog owners that sports fields and school playgrounds are not where their dogs should be doing their business, whether it gets picked up or not.

"Our view," Hood said, "is if people are thoughtful about the needs of other field users, we could resolve this problem without having to restrict any one group."

Prevent the Poop stations would be similar to the current "Scoop the Poop" stations along the city's parks and trails, only more in your face. The PPIPS team came up with a sample poster of a Little Leaguer pinching his nostrils next to a flattened, greasy pile.

Ideally, over time these stations would be installed at every sports field and school playground in the city.

OF DOGS AND KIDS

A group calling itself AADOG (Anchorage Alaska Dog Owners Group), whose members met through the Daily News dog blog, are optimistic that dog lovers will rise to the occasion.

According to member Steve Kreinbrink, the group gets together for doggie play dates at one of these fenced fields, where their labs, pit bulls, Yorkies, boxers, Samoyeds and others can run full tilt without their owners worrying about moose or traffic.

And their owners always clean up after them. Always.

"We are absolutely fastidious about that," Kreinbrink said. "We want to be good stewards."

Rob Gambill, president of City View Little League and the Alaska Canine Weight Pulling Association, is a dog owner with a view from both sides.

"I can see the attraction to the fields," he said. "But it is a place where our children play."

It especially irks him when people turn their dogs loose in fenced fields in winter while they sit in their idling cars.

As a Little League coach, he sees kids and dog poop interact on a regular basis. The kids get it on their gloves, their shoes, their uniforms.

"One of the things people say is, 'We clean up after our dogs.' That's great, but even after they clean up you're not going to want to roll around in that spot. And that's kind of what kids in our leagues are doing."

Find Debra McKinney online at adn.com/contact/dmckinney or call 257-4465.

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