Speaking Personally: No Dogs Allowed?

Bear City Fall Festival is the busiest annual event in Willow Springs, usually drawing crowds that make me reconsider my stance on using toddler leashes. Under normal circumstances, I find them degrading, but as we pick our way through the crowds clutching the kids’ hands and counting them over and over, I do think about it. 

 

In those crowds, we’re almost guaranteed to encounter someone’s furry friend. At that moment, not only are we keeping kids safe in a crowd, but we’ve now encountered a strange dog, frequently face-height for a couple of our kiddos.

 

It’s nerve-racking, to say the least. 

 

It’s also against city ordinances. 

 

Section 205.355 of the Willow Springs city code reads, “No person shall bring or maintain possession or control of any dog or canine to any City sponsored or sanctioned public gathering as defined in this Chapter upon any public property or within one hundred (100) feet either side of the center of the street or other route for events such as parades, or within one hundred (100) feet of the boundary of such event, without permission from the Board of Aldermen.”

There’s an exception for service animals and working law enforcement K9s, of course. Even participants in the dachshund races are expected to vacate the festival after the race.

 

It must be a little-known rule because I’ve never attended a festival downtown when someone doesn’t bring a dog. 

 

It’s rarely enforced. Who, including our local police officers, wants to be “that guy”? Complaining about puppies? This may be the single most unpopular opinion I’ve ever offered. 

 

It’s not my rule, but I believe it’s a good one. And it’s the law in Willow Springs. 

 

On behalf of every mother with her heart in her throat as a small child encounters strange dog in a fall festival crowd; on behalf of all the downtown business owners cleaning up animal mess after a festival; on behalf of all the hardworking festival volunteers who have a dozen jobs and don’t deserve to have another task added to their day, I’ll be “that guy.”

 

Please leave your dogs at home next Saturday.