Dogs On The Beach Once Again Spark Concerns

SOUTHOLD, NY — The issue of dogs on the beach in Southold Town was reborn once again Tuesday night as residents turned out to voice their concerns.

The issue was the center of many heated debates, meetings and forums at Southold Town Hall in past years, before the town board voted to pass legislation that would ban dogs on town beaches from May 1 to Oct. 1, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dogs are also not permitted from areas where "No Dogs Allowed" signs are posted.

Before that legislation passed, an earlier law stated that no dogs were allowed on town beaches, but that rule had not been enforced, residents said.

Dan Catullo, who was attacked by dogs at Bailie Beach in Mattituck, was an ardent advocate for change during the series of public hearings held before the new legislation was passed — and he was back at the town board meeting Tuesday night.

"I'm arising from a five-year hiatus. What's old is new again," he said.

He said in recent years, the subject of dogs on the beach, discussed for such a lengthy period, "has been viewed with some humor. But I found nothing humorous," he said.

Catullo said he was back to respond to comments made at the previous town board meeting by Robert Dunne of Peconic, who said he felt Goldsmith's Inlet "was unique in that was the depository for all the dogs in the Town of Southold."

He commended Councilwoman Jill Doherty, who, at that last meeting, said she felt every dog on public property should be leashed at all times; Doherty had said she was referring to the town's leash law.

Catullo then said that Goldsmith's is not the only beach where dogs run free. "Dogs are widespread throughout the town," he said.

Of Doherty, he said, "amnesia seems to have set in" because she voted for the legislation that "exempts dogs from leashes 92 percent of the time."

Doherty said she disagreed because town code says a dog should be leashed at all times on public property.

Catullo said the legislation involving dogs on the beach allows them to run free except for during the specified times, when they are not allowed on beaches with lifeguards.

As Catullo spoke of Dunne's earlier comments, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said it was not "fair to disparage another speaker who has every bit the same right to speak as you do."

Catullo said with the new legislation, much is arbitrary, such as if the leash is actually on, or adjacent to, the dog, and if its length is so long that it's rendered useless.

"When the law was passed, I was very disturbed," Catullo said. "I've had a Pavlovian response, to stay away from the beach, because of the unhappy circumstances of that whole incident" when he was attacked, he said.

"This dog issue isn't over," Dunne said.

He added that there are signs on town beaches about no dogs being allowed between specified times without a leash, and not being allowed while a lifeguard is on duty. Other issues exist at road ends, he said.

Dunne said he believes some beach attendants are directing dog owners to take their pups to Goldsmith's.

"The rules need to be the same townwide," he said.

Dunne added that he likes to see dogs running free on the beach. "But I think there's a time and a place for it all, and maybe not in the daytime or in the summer. And then it has to be vigorously enforced," he said.

And if people can't follow the rules, then no dogs should be allowed on the beach at all, he said.

Some dogs at the beach at Goldsmith's may have come from the Mattituck Park District, Dunne added.

Doherty said when she first voted to green light the issue, "I remember saying we would be revisiting this one day."

"I'm not going to let this one go. We need to come to an understanding townwide with all the beaches and road endings," Dunne said.

The town is unable to control the park districts, Doherty reminded.

"The park districts shouldn't be sending people to Goldsmith's," as he alleges is happening, Dunne said. "No one beach should have to suffer." But, he said, "I don't want to ban dogs. The 95 percent shouldn't be punished because of the 5 percent that are pigs."

Charlene Catullo said she has not been pleased since the legislation passed, because she works, and the only time she can walk the beach is when dogs are allowed to run free.

After the attack, when a dog leapt for her neck, she said, "I'll never feel the same about dogs."

Dunne said an officer should be stationed at the beach to watch for those leaving garbage — and those not adhering to the dog legislation, and said tickets will serve as a deterrent.

Doherty said that enforcement needs to be consistent.

Patch photo by Lisa Finn.