Off-leash hours are still in jeopardy after the Parks and Recreation Department overturned a ruling by the city’s Environmental Control Board.
The dog has always been man’s best friend and the provider of unconditional love. But sadly, our canine buddy is being told to leash up or get out of Battery Park!
Pre-eminent Downtown attorney, Michael Devereaux, who is a partner at the Devereaux, Baumgarten law firm, is leading the charge to change that and overturn a ruling from the City’s Environmental Control Board that mandates dogs, must be on a leash at all times while in the historic park.
The case originated in April of 2012 when Deveraux’s client, Daniel Oblath, 29, was stopped in the park by Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) peace officers and fined $100 for walking his canine buddy, McLovin, a German shepherd mix without a leash. The irony is that Battery Park had been a park with off-leash hours from 9 p.m.-9 a.m for several decades. That changed in 2007 when the Board of Health ruled Park should not have been a designated leash-free park.
Attorney Michael Devereaux is fighting for the right of dogs to regain off-leash privileges in Battery Park.
As a result, Oblath and McLovin aren’t the only ones that were rounded up by the PEP. So Olbarth’s supporters and fellow dog owners have decided to do something about it. They have circulated a petition, to seek the formalization of off-leash privileges in Battery Park once more.
An excerpt from the petition reads, “Off-leash privileges in Battery Park have resulted in no damage to the Park and, to the contrary, have greatly enhanced quality of life for local residents, by providing a much-needed recreation area for local pets and by making the Park safer for all residents during the hours in which off-leash use had been permitted.”
Oblath and Devereaux appealed and had the fine overturned on September 18th, 2012, in front of the Environmental Control Board (ECB). Administrative Law Judge Robert Straniere, ruled in favor of the duo who were able to prove that the park was under mixed jurisdiction; which included not only PEP officers but National Park Police as well.
The Parks and Recreation Department has appealed the ruling and were successful in reversing the Board’s decision in March of this year. Oblath and Devereaux are now petitioning the Supreme Court to reverse the Board and re-instate Straniere’s decision.
- Brad Popkin