A dog park in Laguna Woods will be shut down for good after the city council unanimously voted to shut it down.
The dog park, A Place for Paws, was shut down because of 'potentially dangerous conditions' and a legal controversy that presented the city with a liability. Insufficient shade, and dog-waste odors were also cited as reasons for the shutdown. There were also higher risks of an accident or fall at the dog park because of the demographics of the nearby community.
Needless to say, local dog owners weren't happy.
"It's a great place for us as adults to socialize and our dogs have so much fun playing together. It's just a really wonderful outing time for the dogs," one dog owner told KFI's Andrew Mollenbeck.
Another animal lover pointed out that people in the neighborhood with dogs weren't going away.
"When you take this [the dog park] away, people are still going to walk around, and it's going to be all over the city, and you still have to clean it up. At least here it's maintained."
Some dog owners took the City Council's decision personally.
"Just feel like it's a little bit of a dig to the people that live here. We're big dog people, we're big animal people."
Officials say problems with the property title on the dog park kept them from doing any improvements on the property. As it turns out, the city doesn't own the property, and they can't track down who does.