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Editor: 

Regarding the letter published on July 18, “Letting dogs run off-leash in Chavez park is a mistake.” 

Many people worked very hard to create the small off-leash area in Cesar Chavez Park. Dog owners, some of whom no longer use soccer fields, playgrounds, or even schools, do pay taxes; and I believe we are entitled to a place where we can give pleasure to ourselves and our usually-confined animal companions. 

The suggestion – threat, really – that those of us who follow the rules will be punished for those who do not is based on a very poor principle of government. 

In fact, my husband and I do caution those we see whose dogs are loose improperly. 

Beyond that, the city police who patrol down there on bicycles, or the animal control people who drive through now and then, could certainly issue tickets to offenders. 

As for wildlife, there's a lot of it around, both predators and prey. While the occasional loose dog may savage a rabbit, it's likely that the real enemies of ground-nesting birds and young rabbits, at least, are raccoons, possums, rats, those big white egrets, feral cats, and possibly even coyotes. 

Janet LaPierre 

Berkeley