Dog owners are feeling squeezed with the closing of an unsanctioned dog park in The Villages and it is raising concern that tensions between dog owners and their neighbors could be on the rise.
Tensions over dogs run high in The Villages, where aesthetics and beauty are of utmost concern.
A piece of private property between Rio Grande Family Pool has long served as a favorite place for dogs to scamper free and off leash. A large crowd of unhappy dog owners showed up earlier this month at a meeting of the Amenity Authority Committee to voice their displeasure over a decision to cut off access to the property.
The limited number of dog parks are often a place where tensions play out.
Kenneth Frischman Rudlin, 69, of the Village of Osceola Hills at Soaring Eagle, was arrested in April at the Atlas-Canine Dog Park on Moyer Loop in the Village of Pine Ridge. Another Villager had taken his two dogs to the dog park and one of his dogs took a ball from Rudlin’s dog, according to an arrest report from the Fruitland Park Police Department. Rudlin hit the other man’s dog with a two-foot long Chuck It ball launcher. The other man tried to break up the fight between the dogs when Rudlin “turned his attention to him” and began striking the other man with the ball launcher. Rudlin, a native of New York, landed behind bars on a felony charge.
A Villager charged with displaying a gun during a dispute over a dog in the Village of Fenney scored a lucky break when he was sentenced earlier this year to probation and community service. Martin Lewis Levine, 58, had been arrested Nov. 14 after a verbal altercation with another individual whose dog was running loose. During the argument, Levine raised his shirt, displaying a black handgun, according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department. He reportedly used profanity when he threatened to shoot the dog owner in the head. It was witnessed by several people.
Earlier this month, a Village of Dunedin woman pleaded for help from the Community Development District 10 Board of Supervisors because she said her home’s corner lot was being used as a neighborhood “toilet” for dogs. She was forced to remove a sign asking dog owners to respect her property after a deed compliance was lodged over the illegal sign.
A dispute over dog excrement led to the arrest of a Villager in 2017 after he attacked another Villager who was walking his dog in the Village of Liberty Park. The attacker told law enforcement he “just snapped.”
A Village of Pennecamp woman was arrested in 2017 after she slapped another woman over barking dogs. The Villager who slapped the other woman appeared to have been drinking and resisted arrest when law enforcement arrived on the scene.
