To the editor: 

There are several users of the dog park in the Haines Memorial State Park in Barrington concerned about the water safety found in the blue plastic tank that an unknown person left at the dog park for the dogs to drink.

Can you provide us with any guidance on the safety of the water for dogs to drink coming from the blue tank? Are there any regulatory standards for animals' drinking water? Are there regulations for standing drinking water vs. moving drinking water? (I am a quality assurance/regulatory compliance professional.)

I was at the dog park tonight with my 5-and—a-half-month-old husky puppy. I spoke with a gentleman on the volunteer committee for the dog park. He said that he checked the water over the weekend and it was definitely dirty. He felt that if the tank was cleaned once a week, that would be acceptable for potability. I told him no, it was not and advised that he should think of how water cleanliness is handled and maintained in restaurants.

He said that they were thinking of putting a lock on the tank. I replied that was a good idea since there are plenty of people who would deliberately contaminate the dogs' water for a myriad of reasons.

It occurred to me that zoos must have potability standards for their animals. If so, would the standards be specific to the species of the animal similar to canines or is there one standard applicable to all land-based animals?

Thank you for any help that you can give us.

Sincerely,

Marcia M. Weeden

Barrington

Editor's note: Weeden shared this letter with local officials.