Pet owner wants trees planted in Bay Ridge dog run

Liam McCabe says animals need shade, too

August 17, 2016 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Liam McCabe poses playfully for the camera with his pet Siberian husky Barrow. Photo courtesy of McCabe

Share this:

Liam McCabe said his dog Barrow loves to be outdoors, but the Bay Ridge resident hasn’t taken his pet pooch to one of his favorite places, the dog run at Owl’s Head Park, all summer.

“There’s no shade,” McCabe, an aide to U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan, told the Brooklyn Eagle. “Dogs have fur coats that can get very hot in the summer. In a dog run, there are wide open spaces that encourage a dog to run and play. They come back panting.”

The popular dog run, which attracts scores of people and pets to the park on Colonial Road and 68th Street in Bay Ridge, doesn’t have any trees or bushes to shield dogs and their owners from the blazing hot summer sun.

That’s a big problem for Barrow, a friendly Siberian husky. “Being a husky, he gets overheated easily and needs to cool off after a few minutes of playing. His only option at the dog run is to stuff himself under one of the benches to cool down because there are no trees for shade,” McCabe wrote in a recent Facebook post.

After he noticed that other dog owners were equally concerned about the health and well being of their pets, McCabe wrote to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to request that the agency plant trees and bushes in the Owl’s Head Park dog run.

He recently received a reply from forester Tessa Leverone that he deemed promising. He posted the letter on Facebook.

“We have communicated with the park manager for this location regarding tree planting. We are currently preparing for a new park and playground tree planting contract which is scheduled to begin in 2017,” Leverone wrote. “I referred this request to our senior forester for this project and the location may be considered for planting.”

McCabe said he was pleased with the response.

“I am satisfied for now. They are willing to consider it. The most important thing is that it has opened up the door to further discussions. I have heard a lot of complaints from dog owners about the fact that there are no trees there and maybe we can do something about it,” McCabe told the Eagle.

McCabe acquired Barrow from an old classmate at Our Lady of Angels Catholic School, John Capano, who now lives in New Jersey. “His dog had puppies,” McCabe explained.

Having a dog run in a local park is a godsend for urban pet owners, McCabe said. “We are people who live in apartments,” he said.

McCabe, who said he will continue to advocate that the Parks Department plants trees in the dog run, added that he was happily surprised by the amount of attention his quest for shade has received on Facebook.

“So many people wrote comments. And a lot of people had good suggestions. Someone suggested putting in a sprinkler system for dogs in the park,” he said.