San Diego officials are scrambling to crack down on people letting their dogs run free on school playing fields, which have become hotspots for illegal off-leash activity because the security fencing for kids also keeps dogs enclosed.
City and school officials have intermittently closed joint-use parks at five elementary schools since last year to send a message they’ll no longer tolerate off-leash dogs damaging turf, biting students or leaving poop for them to step in.
But because those closures risk depriving law-abiding residents of recreational opportunities without stopping illegal off-leash activity, officials are launching a new campaign using color-coded warning signs.
When school officials get reports of bites or find lots of dog poop and damaged turf on a school field, they will shift the sign there from green to yellow. If things get worse, the sign will turn red and the park will be closed.
The city will design, pay for and install the new signs.
The new campaign is another attempt to encourage dog owners to be responsible and thoughtful, without resorting to a crackdown where San Diego Humane Society enforcement officers start writing expensive citations.
“It is unfortunate that the actions of a few people violating the rules have resulted in the joint-use park areas being closed to protect public safety,” said Nicole Darling, a city spokesperson. “We ask pet owners to take responsibility for their animals and help ensure that shared spaces, like joint-use park facilities, can remain open for the community.”
The off-leash problem — which San Diego Unified School District officials say keeps getting worse — could jeopardize a highly touted partnership that has created 94 joint-use parks at school sites across the city.
When schools are out of session, school playing fields become public parks that often provide the only recreational open space in a dense urban neighborhood.
But there’s a problem: The special fencing at school fields that aims to keep students safe from kidnappers and drug dealers also happens to create an ideal space where dog owners can run their pets off-leash without fear they will escape.
“The perimeter security fencing is for student and staff protection and safety during the school day and provides site security after hours, but a large grass field with a full perimeter fence appeals to pet owners that wish to allow their dogs off-leash, since they are contained by the park perimeter fence,” said Samer Naji, a school district spokesperson.
The negatives of off-leash activity include dogs digging holes that lead to twisted ankles, urine destroying turf and liability for injuries from dog bites, Naji said.
But another concern is that community members just decided to avoid the fields.
“When off-leash dogs damage the fields, leave waste behind or present a safety risk to other joint-use field users, it creates an environment where students and their families no longer want to use the space intended for them during the school day, nor after hours when these facilities are intended to serve as a community park,” Naji said.
School district officials say the off-leash problem has gotten worse as San Diego has added more higher-density housing to older neighborhoods without providing new recreational facilities to match — especially off-leash dog parks.
Darling, the city spokesperson, noted that San Diego has opened seven new off-leash parks during the last five years. The city now has 18 off-leash areas, including highly popular Fiesta Island and Ocean Beach dog beach. There are also off-leash areas outside the city.
School district officials acknowledge the city is trying.
The Humane Society, which handles animal enforcement for the city, has launched a “love ’em, leash ’em” campaign and sends out enforcement officers when people report off-leash activity to a hotline at 619-299-7012.
But the city’s Parks and Recreation Department in January said that the Humane Society “has focused its officers on education prior to enforcement,” despite the off-leash problem at school sites.
That means warnings and encouragement, but usually not citations. The Humane Society issued between 300 and 400 off-leash citations — about one per day — each year in 2022 and 2023 in San Diego. Numbers for 2024 aren’t yet available.
The Humane Society declined requests to comment on the off-leash problems at schools, but the nonprofit’s chief of law enforcement told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2023 that he doesn’t have nearly enough personnel to aggressively enforce leash laws.
The official, Jace Huggins, said off-leash activity is a tough issue that definitely has two sides.
He said people feeling safe at city beaches and in city green spaces is crucial, but that it’s also tough to ticket people for letting their dog do something that comes naturally and keeps the dog healthy — roaming free in a park.
School district officials say the bottom line is that the problem isn’t getting solved.
“Increased public messaging about the issue and increased enforcement has not deterred off-leash dog activities at SDUSD joint-use sites,” Naji said. “We do believe that enforcement measures sufficient to deter misuse need to be in place to ensure these fields remain safe and well-maintained for student use.”
The color-coded warning signs, which should be posted across the city in coming months, might do more than just encourage dog owners to obey the law by warning of imminent consequences, he said.
Parents have mostly stopped calling in complaints to the Humane Society about off-leash activity because of spotty responses from city enforcement, but a yellow sign warning that a park might soon close could encourage them to call more aggressively, Naji said.
Another possible option: The city and Humane Society could give school district officials the discretion to issue citations — something Naji said “warrants discussion and consideration.”
The school district also plans to keep using closures strategically. Fields at Ibarra, Hearst, Birney, Franklin and Garfield elementary schools have been closed to the public intermittently.
A typical closure lasts eight weeks — enough time to clean out the feces, fix the holes and send a message to off-leash users that there are consequences for their actions.
The fields at Garfield and Franklin remain closed every weekday after school, but they are available for public use on weekends and school breaks.
There’s a chance the off-leash problem could jeopardize the joint-use parks program — or at least slow its expansion.
City Parks and Recreation officials said in January that students being sent home because their shoes and clothes are smothered in dog poop could pose a problem under state law.
“Joint use of school property is permitted under the (California) Civic Act providing there are no negative impacts to the school curriculum,” Parks and Rec officials said.
Naji said the problem could also sway public sentiment against the partnership.
“Continued misuse of district facilities does jeopardize the widespread family and staff support of these projects,” he said.
Even if the partnership isn’t in jeopardy, the problem needs to be solved, said Marcella Bothwell, chair of the city’s Parks and Recreation Board.
“I hate to threaten people,” Bothwell told her colleagues on the board this winter. “But we can’t have our kids running around in feces. If they know a closure is a possibility, they might rally around not doing stupid stuff.”
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