By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – Mayor Jay Gillian is asking dog owners to keep their pets on a leash.
At the Nov. 5 City Council meeting, the mayor said he has been getting multiple complaints about dog owners letting their pets run free, in violation of city ordinance. He said he wants to work with the Humane Society of Ocean City to educate owners, rather than having police write them up for violations.
The mayor said he understands that people consider dogs as part of the family, but they also should consider the feelings of those who are afraid of dogs. He knows “people want to do what they want to do and they’re going to do,” acknowledging some owners won’t obey the law.
“People think it’s cool to let their dogs off the leash because they believe they can control their animal, and I’m sure they can, but just like we’re seeing in America right now that we’re so divided, people who don’t like dogs are scared to death,” he said. “My wife got bit a couple of years ago when a dog wasn’t on a leash.”
He said he has called the Humane Society asking for help, but hadn’t yet made contact. In the meantime, he is having more police officers patrol, but doesn’t know how much it will help.
“We can send a thousand police officers out there and people are still going to do it,” he said.
The mayor called for dog owners to be responsible.
“For a dog owner or a parent, it’s all about self responsibility. And when you speed, or whatever, you have to take responsibility,” he said. “With dogs, and we have a lot of great dogs, it’s a great community, but we ask to just think about the one person who is just scared to death and you’ve just ruined their day because they’ve seen a dog not on a leash.
“I don’t want to preach on it too much, but as mayor it is my responsibility to make sure this town is safe. We have extra police officers out on the beach trying to enforce it. We’re doing the be nice, be kind (approach), but we have a lot of residents calling and telling me they want me to put the hammer down on some of these people,” Gillian said.
The next step is educating owners to leash their pets.
“We try to educate and work with people instead of just slamming them with fines,” Gillian said, adding, “I was going to be funny and tell the dogs to leave their owners at home.”
