Letter: Is Barrington Beach going to the dogs?

Posted 7/27/16

To the editor:

What is The Barrington Town Council's intention for our poor little town beach now that they have opened it up to non-residents? That's over 370,000 people in just a 10-mile …

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Letter: Is Barrington Beach going to the dogs?

Posted

To the editor:

What is The Barrington Town Council's intention for our poor little town beach now that they have opened it up to non-residents? That's over 370,000 people in just a 10-mile radius, over one-third the population of the entire state of Rhode Island. 

Is it a bathing beach that responsibly provides and guarantees a clean, safe, hygienic environment for adults and children who have every right to expect to have close personal contact with the land and water in a recreational setting, swimming and playing in the sand?

Or is it a dog park where dogs run free especially before nine and after five and all day long beyond the west end of the beach — splashing, jumping, eating, drinking, defecating, and urinating all along the grassy area, parking lot, and walkway where bathers, adults and children, walk barefoot? (The stools may be scooped up but a filthy, watery stain remains on the blacktop and the urine is just soaked up by the surface and left behind to fester on the warm ground.)

The town council has decided that Barrington Beach will be both, a bathing beach for humans and a toilet for dogs, man's best friend.

According to RI Department of Health, only 40 percent of dog owners scoop the poop, and women are better than men. The EPA found that in only three days — one weekend — one hundred dogs produce enough toxic bacteria to close a beach to swimming and shellfishing. Dog waste is much more toxic than human waste — 1 gram of dog waste contains more than 23 million fecal coliform bacteria that cause vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, fever and other sometimes life threatening conditions. 

The other day at the beach a professional dog walker with four large dogs allowed them to urinate in front of me on a post along the path to the parking lot. She unapologetically left a puddle of filth for me to step over and went on her way. 

This is disgusting. Even when wearing footwear, the toxic bacteria can be transferred from surface to surface where it blooms in the summer heat. A child playing in the sand or using an infected towel can easily be exposed to E.coli or salmonella and become very sick. 

Now, with non-resident parking there are more dogs than ever. A "Yelp" post encourages people to bring their dogs to Barrington Beach.

The beach is steadliy going downhill as I predicted for this and other reasons, thanks to the town council and recreation department's inept mismanagement. What a shame.

Alan Sorrentino

Barrington

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