Tonight the Council will be voting on if you should be able to bring your dog to local festivals. I read the newspaper and formed an opinion. Then, I got informed and the ordinance is a whole lot different than I thought. You might think so too.
Turns out, this law only applies to festivals with 10 or more food vendors that need a street permit. That means this year 5 festivals would have been/be affected this year if it passes.
Taste of Madison
Art Fair on the Square (but not off the square)
Wednesday Farmer’s Market
Maxwell Street Days
Willy Street Fair
Turns out, the organizers of all these events support the ordinance.
The one outstanding issue is the Willy Street Fair and their parade, but I think they get a separate parade permit for that. Hopefully, they have worked something out on that by tonight.
Others might be affected if they have more than 10 vendors in the future and need a street permit.
Festivals held in parks are covered by the parks rules, unless they are dog parks, dogs likely are already not allowed.
Festivals like Le Fete are not covered, even tho there was the serious dog bite there.
I know this riles up the dog owners, but really, there is little impacted here.
It’s funny, the articles didn’t really paint this same picture, or perhaps I just didn’t read them well, one of the two.
I doubt that banning dogs from events is the ticket. Is it verified that crowded events make all dogs agitated? The individual who got bitten at La Fete asked the owners if it was OK to pet dog. They said dog was harmless. For some reason, dog lost it and bit woman. This very incident could happen on a public sidewalk, at a dog park…Maybe the dog was unstable and the owners exercised poor judgement taking it out? At the root of this was an unstable dog. If Madison wants to require a behavioral screening of all dogs at the point of licensing, or mandate behavioral training for dogs, that would more effectively reduce your odds of encountering a psycho dog that bites in this city.