Dear Orrin's Lies, Damn Lies and (incorrect) Statistics

We couldn't let an entire year go by without showing Dear Orrin some love. After all, our little man has been busy typing with one hand on his keyboard (don't ask where the other hand is), penning his fantasy missives to anyone who will listen. Our hero is hoping that enough time has passed since his micro-ilk's crushing defeat in 2006/7 that a new generation might be sympathetic to the same arguments Orrin tried so unsuccessfully a few years back.

It appears our hero has been stimulated by a recent New York Times article that quotes NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and New York Council of Dog Owners Group (NYCdog) President Bob Marino. Oh, it just makes our little man lose his little mind when two of his favorite people are mentioned in the same breath, or same article. You see, Commssioner Benepe and President Marino are perhaps the two people most responsible for Orrin's cataclysmic and utter defeat during the great offleash battles. Oh, it just get our little man's undies in a bunch that those guys are quoted as authorities on the matter!

So Dear Orrin wishes to set the record straight. Enough time has passed after all, perhaps the same failed arguments he made in 2006/7 will now work! So our hero pens a letter to the NYT reporter. The letter is so flawed, with error of fact and omission, that it bears quoting in its entirety (of course with commentary that might help Dear Orrin gets his facts straight). As the late great Senator Daniel P. Moynihan said, " Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." Trouble is, Dear Orrin's been under the mistaken belief for years that his own opinions somehow correspond to objective facts. But as a close examination of his written words indicate just the contrary.

Dear Ms. Foderaro:

I was disappointed by your discussion of the leashless dog issue in New York City and particularly your uncritical quotation of Adrian Benepe, who is hardly a neutral observer, and Bob Marino, a paid lobbyist for the anti-leash dog owners (by no means all dog owners). You apparently made no effort to contact opponents of New York's unleashed policies even though you could have found any of Messrs Jett or Croft, or me, with a minimal Google search. Partly as a result, you misstate--and slant--some significant facts:

Oh Dear Orrin, in your mind the all powerful off-leash "lobby" has unlimited resources to purchase new high-backed leather chairs and ivory-handled back scratchers for leaders such as Bob Marino. Hate to burst your fantasy, but NYCdog is an all-volunteer organization, with a shoe string budget raised entirely from membership, and there are no paid positions and no financial compensation whatsoever. The only compensation is the unadulterated pleasure of fighting the good fight, in court, in the press, and in the court of public opinion, defeating the nattering nabobs of negativity such as the Archie Bunkers over in Middle Village (Orrin's peeps), and some Orrin's other good friends whom he mentions. So we can't even get through the first paragraph of Dear Orrin's screed without factual error. Of course, this is just one of a cornucopia of lies, damn lies, and (incorrect) statistics that Dear Orrin tries yet again to foist on the public.

1. Before the leash law--actually, a Board of Health regulation--was amended in 2007, regular leash-free hours in the park was not "accepted practice". In Prospect Park, the DPR had for years informally declared "courtesy hours" in which the leash law would not be enforced--over the protests of birders and many others, but in Central Park, the CPC actually warned dog owners that while there were informal off-leash gatherings, participants were subjected to being ticketed. And a Queens group had sued the DPR over its non-enforcement of the rules.

Actually, Dear Orrin, prior to 2007, Off-leash in certain areas and at certain times was accepted practice--for approximately 20 years, sanctioned by Parks Commissioners from Henry Stern, to Betsy Gotbaum, to Adrian Benepe. Perhaps Dear Orrin forgot the letters from each Parks Commissioner that were submitted as testimony during the hearings to amend park regulations to formalize the off-leash hours policy. Yet another error of omission for Dear Orrin.

2. Crime in big New York City parks has been dropping for years. Central Park is now considered safe 24 hours a day. Dogs may be unleashed only between 9 P.M. and 9 A.M., and the vast majority of legal off-leash activity occurs between 8 A.M. and 9 A.M. Mr.. Benepe and the anti-leash lobby whose slogans he is parroting--there is no other way to put it--cannot explain how this presence accounts for the drop in crime between 9 A.M. and 9 P.M. And if you were to come to Central Park or Prospect Park on a really nasty, sleety day, you would see birdwatchers, but few if any dog owners with their dogs loose.

Dear Orrin must have forgotten that off-leash hours was widespread in many NYC parks prior to the policy being codified in 2006/7. In fact, during the dark times of NYC's nadir, park officials praised dog owners who gathered for off-leash activities and credited them for helping begin the virtuous cycle that helped reclaim parks like Prospect from the criminal element. Orrin knows better, but either willfully ignores these facts, or our hero is starting to lose some gray matter to his advancing years. How sad.

3. It is true that dog bites in the City were dropping for many years. But that was before the leash law was changed.

Again, Dear Orrin forgets that Off-leash policy existed over 20 years before the leash law was amended in 2007. This time coincides with a propicious drop in the number of Citywide dog bites. It also coincides with an even larger drop in the number of dog bites in parks. Oh no, Dear Orrin, your facts are 180 degrees wrong! Yet you keep repeating the same untruths (aka lies).

And--just to reiterate--in Central Park, before that time there were small gatherings of unleashed dogs in the morning. Now, all of Central Park is a dog park before 9 A.M. Since 2007, according to a recent Daily News article, dog bites in the City have been going UP.

Oh Dear Orrin must have been absent that day in math class when they taught the children that 3,609 of anything <3,956 of the same anything. Including dog bites. You see, Orrin was never big on basic math.

So, by Mr. Benepe's logic, the promulgation of the loosened leash law has increased dog bites.

Actually, Dear Orrin, just the opposite. But perhaps if you say it until you're blue in the face, some other mathematically challenged person who also doesn't know that a drop of over 350 bites year over year is a DECLINE might believe you.

Pity Dear Orrin. Time is not on his side. He was hoping that if enough time went by, he'd be able to spin his crushing defeat 6 years ago into some heroic myth of "paid lobbyists", corrupt Parks officials, and a powerful dog-owning cabal thwarting the will of the silent majority. Unfortunately, facts are facts, and thanks to the Internet, objective facts have a very long life. But look on the bright side, Dear Orrin, that same Internet lets you bellyache as much as you'd like on your own hate blog. Isn't is a great world?

See y'all in the park.