A new rule allows dogs to go leashless between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. in parks unequipped with dog runs. Except downtown. Three owners recently got ticketed in a fetch-friendly part of the East River Park they’d been using for years; others reported nearly getting collared in Carl Schurz and Battery Parks. As it turns out, the new rule doesn’t apply below 59th Street. Dog activists are howling, but Parks commish Adrian Benepe calls the East River Park “a series of ball fields” that “was never supposed to be an off-leash area.” He says he might put a dog run in, though.

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Carol Vinzant
• Table of Contents: May 14, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!