Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which administers tons of open space around San Francisco, is working up new guidelines for where folks can let their dogs go off-leash. A blog for local pet owners has an update on what’s going on.

An interesting comment from one reader of the blog:

Those of us who wish to keep the 1979 Pet Policy in place only wish to continue to recreate on less than 1% of GGNRA land. To further limit off leash recreation is a disservice to dogs, who far outnumber children in San Francisco and, at a time, when SF Park & Recreation is further cutting back off leash areas on City land. This NR is just a predetermined sham to rid the GGNRA of dogs. Fortunately, the illegalities of the NR have been closely watched and documented such that a legal attack on the process is inevitable.

Citing the 1 percent figure makes this argument sound suspiciously familiar to the debates about ATVs in the national forests.

I figure if we can let cows crap all over our regional parks, we can let some dogs rip and tear in a few areas. (Come to think of it, the free-ranging cattle in local parks do become a catch-all rationale for allowing just about anything short of strip mining).