We at The Star have an infallible Trouble-o-Meter that lets us know when an issue around town has risen to the boiling point and needs to be addressed by the powers that be: our Letters to the Editor. As faithful readers will be aware, the red-hot topics this summer were traffic (naturally), the senior center (still), housing (what’s new?), and . . . dogs. We have been fielding a lot of letters about dogs lately.
There’s the controversy over the dog park in Springs — and the unseemly behavior of some dog owners who need to be brought to heel. And, not for the first time, there’s been a lot of barking, both human and canine, over dogs on the beach.
Many in this office can remember when few people actually walked their dogs. This was still the countryside then; we just opened the kitchen door and let Spot and Duke out to roam the neighborhood, returning, like the children, when they grew peckish and wanted a biscuit. But things have changed, and our environment, in many ways, is now more urban than rural, albeit with a more scenic view.
The beaches are where so many of our community tensions become manifest, from truck-driving rights to tussles over the commercialization of public spaces. The beaches are a flashpoint because East Hamptoners care so much about them; they are our sacred space. And, these past few weeks, it’s become obvious that the Town of East Hampton and the Village of East Hampton should team up to regularize the rules about dogs on the beach.
Right now, dog-on-beach rules are just too complicated, and it ends up with animals and owners and others snarled and gnashing their teeth at one another. You can walk Mr. Sprinkles 500 feet from the parking lot on some beaches . . . but how do you traverse the hot sand without annoying others? Are Barkely and Chewy even allowed in the lifeguard zone in summer? Does Mary Puppins need to be on a leash, or not? Some owners think it’s fine and dandy to let their goldendoodle sniff around others’ beach blankets; some think they can refuse orders when lifeguards ask them to move farther from the crowds. It’s all too complicated.
Montauk’s rules are cut-and-dry, and we think that a similar, simplified code should be adopted throughout the town: No dogs on the beach between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. between May 15 and Sept. 15. That’s it. No fighting, no biting.