- May 20, 2024
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Volusia County's dog-friendly beach pilot program has now been active for over six months. Is it working? Is it causing issues? Do residents still want it?
Two petitions — one to end the pilot program immediately and one to continue it — have emerged in recent weeks. Part-time Ormond Beach resident and former City Commissioner David Schecter created a petition to end the program in March, citing that dog owners are not adhering to the program's rules to keep their dogs leashed and cleaning up after them, both in the dog-friendly beach and outside of it. Schecter, who lives in a condo north of the 0.6-mile stretch of dog-friendly beach, said the county isn't enforcing the program's rules — and hasn't enforced the ban of animals on the beach countywide for years.
"When they put this dog zone in place — which most people weren't too worried about — we felt the county's lack of enforcement of its own rules about animals on the beach was going to be a bad sign," Schecter said.
His petition has been signed 291 times, as of Friday morning.
Nanette McKeel Petrella, president of Daytona Dog Beach Inc., started a counter petition on May 1 in support of the pilot program. When they saw Schecter's petition, Petrella said, she was struck by what she described as an "inaccurate and exaggerated representation of facts" and uninformed claims.
"When we saw that the petition was there and heard about it ... we were very disheartened by it," Petrella said. "But the more we dug into it, we really became very concerned, and we're concerned because we really feel like it's a deceptive manipulation of truth and for probably a small group's own self-interest."
Petrella's counter petition has been signed 1,247 times, as of Friday morning.
Anybody can start a petition, Volusia County Councilman Troy Kent said. Kent, who spearheaded the effort last year to implement the pilot program in Ormond on the beach from Milsap Road to Rockefeller Drive, said county staff data from the past four months show the pilot program has been "wildly successful."
There are 6,223 dogs counted in the dog-friendly beach over the past four months. A total of 204 warnings were given for a dog spotted off its leash, two warnings of owners not cleaning up after their dog, and 100% compliance.
"We're talking about 1% of the beach here," Kent said. "Ninety-nine percent is still dog-free. Some people will try to ruin any good that is happening out there."
There's a vocal minority out there, Kent said, who want a "private beach" and to prevent dog owners from walking their pets in front of their condos. He said dogs walking outside of the dog-friendly beach are oftentimes service animals.
Schecter said that part of the issue is that, now that the dog pilot program has been created, people think dogs are allowed everywhere on the beach, creating a problem for people outside of the designated zone. He said he has a couple dozen photos on his phone, as other people have been sending him photos of dogs outside of the designated zone, off-leash or with owners not cleaning up after them.
"When we contacted our representatives, we got nowhere," Schecter said.
He's not someone that creates petitions regularly, he said. He's been a dog owner for most of his life. Not everyone is a responsible dog owner, he said, and the pilot program was rolled out too quickly.
"It's now become a real hot mess," Schecter said. "So when we got, not only zero response but we were basically told we were nuts, we just thought, 'All right, we'll try a petition.'"
A handful of residents, Schecter said, plan to attend the May 21 Ormond Beach City Commission meeting to ask for local support to shut the program down.
Implementing the dog-friendly beach pilot program was a journey that took over three years, Petrella said. The county is approaching the program from a statistical standpoint, she added, and all of her 34 volunteers have been trained by county staff.
"They want us to gather data, so we're collecting data separate from what the county is doing through their agencies, and then we are submitting it every month to them," Petrella said.
She and her volunteers are not seeing issues on the dog beach. They are not there 24/7, but they are there every day, collecting data and informing beachgoers of the rules.
The volunteers also work to keep the beach clean. Over the past six months, Daytona Dog Beach has cleaned up over 1,200 pounds of trash.
"These people are dedicated," Petrella said. "Most of them are between 50 and 80 years old."
Schecter said he doesn't see the volunteers on the beach, and the animal control officer that's supposed to oversee the program doesn't patrol the area regularly. The program has been "mismanaged and it's way understaffed," he said.
Ormond Beach resident Chris Daniel agrees with Schecter's concerns. A few months ago, he said he spoke to the animal control officer in charge of the dog-friendly beach after he saw a couple of dogs off-leash. But because the dogs were not on the zone, Daniel said the officer told him to contact the Volusia Sheriff's Office.
When he spoke to a deputy later that day, Daniel said his concerns were ignored. He said he was told to be grateful if dogs walking off leash on the beach was his biggest problem in his life.
"What they're doing is turning this section of the beach into, in my opinion, a dog park, without regard for all the other people who have traveled down, spent money, got hotels, hoping to just come to the beach, relax, exhale and enjoy the tranquility, rather than be in the middle of a bunch of dogs running back and forth," Daniel said.
He said he doesn't think the beach is a place for a dog and that he bought his condo because Volusia County didn't allow dogs on the beach.
Daniel said he was concerned about the safety of having dogs on the beach too. A couple years ago, his wife was bitten by a dog and now bears scars on her leg and hand.
"To be honest with you, I don't feel good about calling the sheriff's office to report a dog on the beach," Daniel said. "You know these guys have bigger things going on, but who is going to enforce it? That's who they tell you to call."
The Volusia Sheriff's Office and Volusia County Animal Services have received zero reports about dog bites or aggressive incidents on the beach involving dogs since the start of the pilot program.
Most people who go to the dog-friendly beach, Petrella said, are doing the right thing. They're keeping their dogs on a leash, sitting under an umbrella and enjoying the beach. She has her own photos to back that up.
"There is a demand and I hear such heartfelt stories from all points of view as to what this means," Petrella said. "And so that's who I'm continuing to work for."
Kent said that when he's on the dog-friendly beach, he's seeing "happy dogs and happy dog owners." He hasn't seen the issues outlined in Schecter's petition, which he said is "fear-mongering." At the end of the day, Kent said, the facts speak for themselves — and one of those is that Petrella's counter petition has been signed by almost 1,000 more people.
"It speaks volumes that most people want to allow Volusia County to have a section of the beach where it's dog-friendly — that's what it says," Kent said. "It's actually to me, it's an exclamation point."
Schecter said he's not opposed to a dog-friendly stretch of beach, but where it was placed is a "real recipe or disaster."
"By creating, honestly, a dog zone to begin with, you've added fuel to the fire in terms of animals now allowed on the beach," Schecter said. "And that's really the biggest issue — they're just not doing what they're supposed to do and don't seem to care."
