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If you walk your dog at OARDC, you'll have to start-or continue- doing two things: leashing it and cleaning up after it. Starting May 1, 2000, OARDC will be enforcing an existing Ohio State University rule that requires dogs on university property to be leashed and their owners-or whoever is walking them-to clean up after them. Assistance dogs are excepted. Green-and-white signs announcing the rule will be posted on the campus, including in Secrest Arboretum, and trash receptacles for disposing of pet waste will be provided. The rule also applies to the Agricultural Technical Institute. ATI, like OARDC, is part of Ohio State. The policy is for the protection of both people and dogs, said Greg Ferrell, Wooster campus chief of the Ohio State University Police. A visitor was bitten by an unleashed dog last year, unleashed dogs may attack leashed pets, and complaints have been increasing about dog waste on the grounds, he said. "As with everything, our primary concern is safety," Ferrell said. "That's why we're going to enforce a policy that already exists." An added concern is liability: if a person were bitten by an unleashed dog, the university may be considered negligent for not enforcing an existing policy, he said.
An estimated 10,000 people visit the arboretum in a year, while hundreds of faculty, staff and graduate students use the campus every day. "We are extremely pleased that so many people find the OARDC campus a beautiful place to visit, and we want to encourage this usage," said OARDC Director Steve Slack. "Many people also find the campus to be a good place to walk their dogs, which we also encourage, but the number of visitor has made it imperative that we enforce leash usage and require people to clean up after their dogs in order to preserve the aesthetic value of our campus for everyone," he said. Ferrell said that there will be an initial grace period during which violators will be informed of the rule-University Rule 3335-13-05 (A) - but won't be warned or cited. After that, warning will be issued, and if a person is repeat offender they will be cited under Ohio Revised Code Section 955.22 (C). "It won't be popular with everyone," Ferrell said of the policy, "but the majority of the people we've talked to think it's a good idea." For more information, call the Ohio State University Police at Wooster at 287-0111.
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