Several pet owners say Aventura’s dog park should provide a separate section for smaller dogs after they say their tiny pups were attacked by bigger animals.
AVENTURA, FL -- When Joan and Dan Herman retired, they did not want to buy a yacht and sail across the Atlantic Ocean or climb Machu Picchu.
Their grand plan was to take Olive, their pug, to the Aventura Waterways Dog Park every day and enjoy spending time with their friends — fellow dog owners — under the shade of the park’s trees while Olive got her daily exercise and played with the other dogs.
But that plan fell through.
In May, the Hermans took Olive to the Waterways Dog Park. They say a tan-colored Pit bull mix lunged at Olive and grabbed her by the neck. Dan Herman went to rescue his 4-month-old pug and the Pitbull darted for Herman. The couple left the park, never to return again.
“It was just the place for me to go get some fresh air,” said Joan Herman. “Now, I have nowhere to go with my dog. I wanted to go to the dog park everyday, but I have a small dog that could be hurt, and I can’t take a chance anymore. I am stuck in a condo.”
The Hermans are not the first to complain their small dog has been attacked by a bigger dog at the one-acre park in north Aventura, just off Yacht Club Drive.
Since November 2008, about four months after the Waterways Dog Park opened, there have been at least 10 reported incidents to the Aventura Police Department involving dog fights, including four instances where a bigger dog has attacked a smaller dog. There have been at least three reported cases where a person was bitten or attacked by a dog at the park, to the documents .
Robert Sherman, director of city community services, said these are occasional and isolated incidents that are bound to happen at any dog park.
“We have about 18,000 to 20,000 visits to the park every year and we hear reports of occasional bites. That’s going to happen,” Sherman said. “Just something to put the whole thing in perspective.”
But for the Hermans it was enough to stop them from going to the park.
“We just can’t go back there because it is just one thing after another,” said Joan Herman. “All you want to do is to just take your dog to the park, let them run around a little bit and leave. But there are people there who don’t take responsibility for their dogs.”
(Miami Herald - July 24, 2011)
