Off leash dogs

Animal control is under the Health Department.  If you do want to file a complaint, that is where you should direct it.  With the increase in dog bite instances in Maplewood, they are apt to be quite responsive.  Regarding the off leash dog(s) in the Clinton School yard, alert the School Board of the practice since the school district is a separate jurisdiction from the town.  

This is not an animal control issue. It's a police issue. 

The animal owner is breaking the law.

That being said, Maplewood PD refuses to enforce the leash law in Memorial Park.

Love my dog, love dogs generally, but these owners are also oblivious to the fact that some people are afraid of dogs and are entitled to walk around without fear of being approached by an unleashed dog.  This is a problem in the Reservation where unleashed dogs abound.  I used to walk our dogs on the trails and there was an incident where two days in a row, a lady had her dog off leash and it attacked, or tried to attack, my dog.  Another time a guy's dog came at me in cold weather and got its mouth on one of my gloves and wouldn't stop pulling. Don't know if it was an attempted bite but it definitely was not friendly.   

Thanks all. I will try all three - school board, PD, health department.

I have found the MPD more responsive when I mentioned that the off-leash dogs were near kids. As indicated above, they didn't seem to care if it was occurring in the parks generally. But when I said two dogs were running around leashless in the playground where there were kids, an officer arrived almost immediately.

For the record, Maplewood's ACO has been Animal Control Solutions. The organization handles 60 towns, has no shelter, will not tell you where they take animals, just generally explains they use different vets and shelters. When I explained that as 501C3 cat rescue, I get inquiries so could the just tell me where they take South Orange animals for at least the 7 day hold. The person said, no, because in the past people; have protested the vets. So clearly after the legal 7 day hold, all bets are off.

I'm speaking to South Orange in hopes to revert to a more compassionate solution.

They also don't bother with TNR, a growing issue, and they charge for each and everything they do, plus a significant monthly fee. Yet we have a shelter built by donations sitting there.