While Beirut's residents continue to suffer through power cuts, water shortages and confusion over whether last summer's trash crisis was actually resolved, Beirut's Municipal Council has put forward a proposal to ban dogs in public spaces.
"Demand from His Excellency, the Governor of the city of Beirut, to prevent riding motorcycles and putting arghiles and walking dogs on the entire sidewalks of the seaside promenade area, Sassine Square and Horsh Beirut. The municipality should also place ads and guidance to inform the citizens with the new rules and use security forces and police in Beirut to monitor the implementation."
Although riding motorcycles on sidewalks might be an understandable thing to target and public health concerns could be behind banning arguiles, many are confused about the logic of banning dogs from public spaces.
A coalition of mainstream Lebanese political party representatives took the reins of the Beirut Municipality in May of this year. It faced stiff competition from grassroots group Beirut Madinati, which mounted a formidable campaign against establishment parties, making this year's election one of the fiercely fought ones in Lebanon's history.
"It is illogical and doesn't have any justification," a board member of Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA) told StepFeed .
Explaining that it could be understandable for the municipality to be concerned about abandoned dog excrement polluting the city, the BETA representative pointed out that the municipality did not use this as justification. Instead, the council cited public "tranquility" as the reasoning.
However, BETA also emphasized that the proposal has not yet been approved and the organization plans to send a letter requesting a meeting with municipality to discuss the issue. If excrement is the issue, then BETA will encourage the municipality to address that through fines on careless dog owners. Additionally, BETA said it is acceptable to have designated dog free areas, as is the case with cities in Europe and the United States, however there must be specific logical regulations and justifications for such designations.
"What about people who live in Sassine Square? This is a harassment of those who own dogs," the board member said. She explained that such a ban would cause a hardship for many dog owners in the crowded residential area, as they would have to find a way to walk their dogs somewhere else or face a potential penalty.
Instead of banning dogs in public spaces, BETA suggests that the municipality begin enforcing fines on those who leave dog excrement on sidewalks and also argues that the municipality must begin cracking down on unlicensed dog sellers.
"They need to regulate all of these places [that sell dogs]. They are selling dogs at very cheap prices to people who are not responsible. This is where the problems come from."
StepFeed was unable to reach the Beirut Municipality for comment on the proposal. This article will be updated if the municipality returns our calls or emails at a later time.