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Pet owners who see the backyards and quiet residential streets of east Williamsburg and Bushwick as a doggie heaven might want to think again.
Many newcomers to the quickly gentrifying neighborhoods are finding that life there can be difficult for their furry friends.
Their litany of complaints, which includes the preponderance of indigenous fighting dogs and dangerous waste on the streets with heavy truck traffic, have been discussed t at the blog bushwickbk.com.
“I moved here because the apartments were perfect for pets,” said Matt Lardie, who relocated from Arizona. “But the neighborhood is just not safe for dogs.”
To some newcomers, the “fighting dogs” — mostly pit bulls — are the biggest threat.
“There is a lot of dog fighting in Bushwick,” said Jamison Brosseau, who claimed to have adopted a fighting dog he found left for dead on a nearby street.
“If you walk your dog by one of the dogs trained to fight, they will attack it,” he said.
To help solve the problem, Lardie is seeking a fenced-off dog run in nearby Maria Hernandez Park.
The run would help keep dogs off the garbage-cluttered streets in the neighborhoods.
“There are chicken bones all over the street,” said Lardie. “And they can splinter in dogs throats if they try to eat them.”
Other residents fear their dogs may be exposed to the dirty water that flood the gutters, which they say can include runoff from small steel shops.
“Ugly red-colored water pours down the gutter and my dog always wants to drink it,” said one dog owner who didn’t want to give his name. “It’s red-colored and I don’t even know what is in it.”
Industry in the neighborhood brings an abundance of trucks, which pose another threat to dogs.
“A [stray] dog wandering around here will just get hit by a truck,” said Matt Magee, who found a bread-loaf sized dog among the factories on Tuesday.
“I’ve done this a bunch of times,” said Magee as he stood at the corner of Bogart and Grattan streets with the tired, scared dog in a duffel bag while he searched for its owner.
“I just can’t leave a dog out here,” he said. “This just isn’t a safe place for dogs.”
©2007 Community Newspaper Group
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