Dog Pee: The Silent Killer

Pee Kills Trees
Originally uploaded by Critical Todd

It's a beautiful afternoon in Manhattan today so I decided to talk a walk and grab some lunch. On my way back, I saw this sign posted in the tiny park at Lispenard and West Broadway.

Let me begin by saying that I can appreciate "Manfred's" position. Nobody likes urine, canine or otherwise, and that it is toxic is so obvious as to not be worthy of debate. However (and this is a large however), how precisely does he expect the average dog owner to control where his or her dog pees?

I am not a dog owner. Maybe this sort of canine pee control is not only possible, intellectually, but practical. Maybe. But if it is, I've never seen it. If a dog wants to pee, it sniffs out what it considers to be a good spot, and it pees: whether against a tree, a fire hydrant, the steps of a stoop, or an unlucky pant leg. It seems, for all intents and purposes, beyond our control.

Let us presume for a moment, though, that it is within our control. As much as I feel for the plight of our arborial cousins, I'd much rather dog owners prevent their dogs from spraying waste in places where people, particularly children, sit, play, smell, and eat. I'd like to propose that dog owners master that art before they try to fight millions of years of genetic habit and ween their dogs off of trees.

If they can do all that, what a wonderful pee-free world it could be. Just, please, for goodness sake, leave them the fire hydrants. A dog needs at least one place to pee in peace.