ST. GEORGE — It’s a message that is seemingly shared year after year and bears repeating as new residents and visitors come to enjoy the area’s many parks and trails with their beloved four-legged friends – your dogs, no matter how well behaved and friendly you know them to be, need to be kept on a leash.

This is the law in St. George and its neighboring municipalities and Washington County overall, as well as the state parks and certain federally protected lands within it, such as the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.

“It’s more of an issue in the spring and fall months when people come out to walk their dogs – but it’s always an issue,” Cathy Freitas, supervisor for St. George Animal Services, told St. George News.

“You’re always going to get people out there who think their dog is well-behaved enough to be off-leash,” she said.

It was around this time last year that the St. George Police Department posted a reminder on Facebook for residents to keep their dogs leashed when out for a walk or visiting a city park. This was due to some encounters between unleashed dogs and city workers who were doing landscape work.

The Police Department shared a similar message in 2020 due to rising complaints of people walking unleashed dogs in city parks and trails during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When you’re in our parks and trails we ask that you keep your dog on a leash, and also ask that you clean up after your dog,” said Shane Moore, director of St. George’s Parks and Community Services.

Moore also touched on one of the more common reasons people use when walking an unleashed dog – the pooch is “well-behaved.”

Someone can have a well-behaved dog, but a dog kept on a leash by someone else may not be, he said.

“We can still have scuffles even if one person (has a dog) on a leash,” Moore said. “Keep your dog on a leash and in control.”

Dogs being off leash in city parks is one of the bigger issues city’s animal services officers deal with, Freitas said.

“People will play ball with their dogs, and I know, it looks fun and it’s a big grassy area and the dog is being well-behaved and having fun, but it is still not allowed,” Freitas said.

St. George has two dog parks people can take their dogs to and unleash them, Moore said. These parks are the JC Snow Park at 300 E. 900 South and the Firehouse Park at 1917 W. 1800 North. There is also the Dog Town Park at 450 S. 200 East in Washington City.

While keeping a dog on a leash can help avoid unfriendly encounters with other dogs and people, it can also be a benefit to those people who “are just terrified of dogs,” Freitas said.

One of those people is Jim Bily, a member of the Red Cliffs Desert Reverse’s trail steward program. The stewards make their rounds through the trails that crisscross the reserve to keep an eye out for potential issues, record encounters they have with fellow hikers and generally act as the eyes and ears of reserve staff.

“I really don’t appreciate being jumped on by a dog,” Bily said. “I get frightened and I don’t like it.”

Bily has been a trail steward for seven years and has encountered many people on the trails who follow the rules about leashes and many who do not.

“There are a lot of people who respect the law,” he said. “But I believe it’s getting a little worse every year.”

For various reasons, it is illegal to have a dog off-leash in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve and overlapping the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and Snow Canyon State Park.

In addition to preventing issues with other dogs and people, keeping the pooch on a leash can prevent encounters with less-than-friendly wildlife like rattlesnakes, Gila monsters and porcupines. These animals can harm and possibly even kill an overly inquisitive dog if it gets too close.

There is also the threat canines can pose to the federally-protected Mojave desert tortoise.

“Dogs and tortoises don’t mix,” Bily said.

A dog can bite and puncture the shell of small, juvenile tortoises with their teeth as the shell isn’t completely hardened yet. This happened in late 2022 with a young tortoise that somehow survived a dog attack. The tortoise was found by trail stewards and has since been looked after by desert reserve staff.

A desert tortoise could also be scared into dehydration if a dog – or any other creature – startles them. An encounter with a dog has the risk of triggering the tortoise to release the contents of its bladder, which otherwise keeps the tortoise hydrated. Without it, dehydration sets in and is potentially fatal for the reptile.

Ammon Teare, outreach coordinator for the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, told St. George that trail stewards recorded over 350 incidents of off-leash dogs in the reserve in 2023.

Places where off-leash dogs have been seen the most across the reserve and surrounding area include the Gap Canyon and Chuckawalla trailheads, as well as the Grapevine Wash off Washington Parkway in Washington City.

While the trail stewards can not issue citations for potential off-leash offenses, the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve is patrolled by Washington County Sheriff’s deputies who will ticket people for violations committed while in the reserve.

Education and enforcement

When the trail stewards or a member of St. George Animal Services tell a dog owner they need to keep their pet on a leash, the majority of people they encounter are compliant and receptive, both Bily and Freitas said.

“Some people are just unaware,” Bily said.

Animal Service officers will generally give the dog owner a warning and one of the extra leashes they carry with them so the dog can be safely tethered, Freitas said.

“We’ll just stop you and ask you to put the dog on a leash,” she said. “If you don’t have one, we’ll give you one.”

Being caught with an unleashed dog can lead to an infraction-level citation, Freitas added, which usually amounts to a fee. Usually, a warning and putting the dog on a leash will remedy the situation without the need for a citation, she said, though added there are times when no warning is given and the citation is immediate.

An infraction for having a dog off leash may also be among the least of the offenses a dog owner faces if their dog happens to attack somebody, which could result in criminal charges and civil action.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.