Dogs and their humans milled around Tavern Square Saturday joining other supporters against the recent health department's crackdown on allowing dogs to accompany their owners to outdoor dining areas. As one speaker at the rally stated, "In many cases these animals are our family."
Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille admitted Saturday morning the city health department's recent crackdown was "something that caught us off guard."
Just two hours before the rally in Tavern Square of dog owners and their canine pets, Alexandria City Council summoned Robert Custard, the city's environmental health director, to their regularly scheduled public hearing. He was asked to explain why the Health Department was taking this action.
"Alexandria has been known as a dog-friendly community. I have asked Dr. Konigsberg [City Health Director] what is driving this," Eullie said prior to Custard's testimony. "This is an issue Council is not going to be dogged by."
Custard said, "The city has an ordinance prohibiting dogs in restaurants since 1940." He noted that such a prohibition was adopted by the federal Food and Drug Administration in 1976 and another city ordinance adopted in 1999.
He also testified, "The local Health Department is charged to uphold both the city and state Food Code." Custard maintained that dogs carry various potential diseases and that "a number of parasites can be carried by dogs."
To further buttress the health department's recent actions against restaurants that allow dogs in their outside seating areas, Custard also said, "This is a basic safety issue because dogs are very protective of their food and can become aggressive when being fed." He went on to cite human allergies to pet dander and hair.
AS HE STATED in a letter to Pat Troy, owner of Ireland's Own, dated April 5, Custard told Council, "animals carry disease-causing organisms and can transmit pathogens to humans through direct and/or indirect contamination of food and food contact surfaces... Dogs shed hair continuously and may deposit liquid or fecal waste...Dogs often have fecal matter in their hair."
Dr. Charles Konigsberg, Jr., director, Alexandria Health Department, explained, "The FDA produced a model code in 1999 and most municipalities are using that version." However, as Custard had noted in his testimony "it is a model, not a law."
According to Konigsberg, "The Commonwealth's Food Code is based on the FDA model. We have checked with our counterparts in both Arlington and Fairfax County and they are following the Commonwealth's code as well. They have also told us they have issued no variances."
Following Custard's testimony, Troy told Council, "It was a sad day for me when I received that letter of April 5, from Bob Custard. I resent the reference to dogs carrying diseases. A lot of the dogs in this city are a lot cleaner than many of the people.
"These dogs are a part of our community. You are a dog-friendly Council. You won your election on being dog-friendly," Troy said.
Euille noted, "Perhaps we need to revisit the ordinance (No.4093 adopted 11/13/99). We don't intend to work against the business community. We will asked the City Manager to bring this ordinance back to be revisited."
City Attorney Ignasio Pessoa, indicated his office would prepare "a memo to Council as to what discretion we have." As of Monday, it had been decided to form a working group composed of restauranteurs, Health Department staff and City Manager Philip Sunderland, to review the matter and make a recommendation to Council, according to Barbara Gordon, public information officer.
"We plan very soon, in the next couple of weeks, to meet with the affected restaurant owners to find some way to answer the concerns of the dog owners and those affected restauranteurs and protect the public health. It is our desire to create a win/win situation," Konigsberg verified.
"We started those conversations on Monday with the city manager, city attorney, and the city business assistant. We are also talking with the Commonwealth to find a common ground. We hope to start off with a meeting by all parties between now and the end of the month," he assured.
When questioned about how the word "in" is defined in the code, Konigsberg acknowledged that will be one of the prime areas for discussion. "The issue is the definition of premises," Konigsberg noted. That had also been pointed out in Custard's letter to Troy.
Following Saturday's public hearing, Euille reiterated his emphasis that, "We do not want this to become a long protracted issue. We want some resolution of compatibility to be worked out. Maybe, when we look at it we will decide no changes are necessary and it was just an overreaction."
IN REFERRING TO the King Street Retail Study, Euille pointed out, "As we move forward to create a renaissance along the King Street corridor, if there are regulations that work against that, we need to find ways to make them more compatible with our plans. This is a dog and pet-friendly city."
Vice Mayor Redella "Del" Pepper, accentuated her position at the public hearing. "We definitely want to continue with Doggy Happy Hour. We [Council] intend to leave this up to the city manager and health department to get this worked out for a win/win solution," she said.
Councilman Andrew Macdonald said, "Council should make it clear we want to reestablish the status quo. If there are real health threats, we definitely wouldn't trivialize this. But I haven't seen any."
He also expressed the feeling, "I don't believe the health department engaged in a very effective dialogue with the businesses affected. There should be a way to create a simple firewall between the dogs and other customers. Pets are extremely important to people in Alexandria. We need to be a lot more sensible with things like this," said Macdonald.
At 11 a.m. Saturday, a rally, organized by Troy, was held on Tavern Square to mobilize city dog owners in opposition to the Health Department's actions. More than 200 signatures were collected on a petition in less than an hour demanding the department's actions be reconsidered.
AS OF MONDAY afternoon, Troy acknowledged, "I have gotten more than 30 phone calls requesting additional petitions to be circulated throughout the city. This is a bigger issue than the dog parks."
That became apparent at the rally as speaker after speaker came to the microphone to express their displeasure with the health department's actions. "I'm really angry about it," said Karen Byers as she stood with her two dogs, Molly Brown and George W.
"These restaurant owners have invested so much. We attend Doggie Happy Hour [at Holiday Inn Select] at least once a week and spend a lot of money. Council seems to have a record of being anti-business. It seems to be a continuing theme of theirs. Dogs represent a very important part of our lives in this community," she said.
Mickey and Terrie Simpson, escorting their dog Lucky, summarized the health department's actions as "bureaucratic over reaction." They quoted Troy's admonition when kicking off the rally, "If it's not broke, don't fix it."
POINTING OUT ONE of the contradictions in Custard's testimony before Council earlier, Mike Oliver, holding a large yellow sign with red lettering proclaiming a dog-friendly message, stated, "You wouldn't be at one of these restaurants if you didn't like dogs." And, "you can always sit inside if you want to get away from the dogs."
Initiating the rally, Troy noted he has been serving dogs in the patio area of his restaurant for 24 years. He also took exception to Custard's reference to diseases allegedly carried by dogs.
"If the health inspectors were right about the diseases I'd be dead by now. Tara, our little dog, has been sleeping with us for the past seven years," he said referring to the little white dog being held by his wife, Bernadette, next to him at the podium.
He also restated the observation, "I get a lot more people in my restaurant that are dirtier than most dogs. These are not dogs these are our kids."
Troy told the crowd, "I'm on a task force to make Alexandria better. They [the Health Department] have destroyed the Holiday Inn."
But he urged those attending the rally not to blame City Council. "They knew nothing about this. Don't blame them." Troy put the onus on the health department.
"We are the nucleus of our city. We need action now. We elected these people and we're asking them to use common sense," Troy told the gathering.
Andy Rosenberg, who is challenging U.S. James P. Moran (D-8) in the upcoming June Democrat primary, told the crowd, "We should approach issues with common sense. Our town is blessed to have such leaders as Pat Troy."
HE WAS JOINED in that tribute by Lisa Marie Cheney, Republican candidate for the 8th Congressional District. "I echo Andy's remarks," she said. "This is what makes Alexandria a community. We, as citizens, need to say we have the right to run our own community."
Sarita Schotta, an Old Town resident, emphasized, "We need to hear from veterinarians and others about these so-called disease issues. I asked Dr. [Charles] Konigsberg from the health department if he was coming to this rally and his answer was 'no way.'"
Another long-time resident, Philip Morrison, pointed out, "There is a fabric to Old Town that seems to be being taken away thread by thread." He noted his wife was from France. "When we take our dogs to France they are welcomed everywhere. And France is a nation of 60 million people. Their criteria is based on behavior, not health."
He also said, "The city has doubled my taxes in the last 10 years. It enables them to muck around with unimportant issues like this instead of concentrating on our more serious problems."
Sunil and Rebecca Doshi, with their dog Chuckly, made one of the most economically telling statements. "We moved to Del Ray last year because this was a dog-friendly city. If they change that we will probably continue to live here but we will take our business elsewhere," said Sunil Doshi.
One canine owner holding a miniature doberman pincer summed up the mood of the crowd when she came to the microphone and announced, "The dogs here today are telling everyone to lift a leg on City Hall." It received the most applause of all the speakers.