40 minutes in the car Why a dog owner drives clear across Bonn to walk her dog

Bonn · Regina Rebien from Bonn has two dogs and wants to be able to let them run without a leash when she takes them out. Where she lives, this is hardly possible. So she drives 40 minutes back and forth across the city. But the city administration has seen no need to act.

 A dog owner out walking their dog in Derletal

A dog owner out walking their dog in Derletal

Foto: Benjamin Westhoff

Sometimes Regina Rebien loads her two dogs into the car and drives 20 minutes from Hardtberg to Beuel just to take them for a walk. There is a so-called “Freilaufflächen” (free-running area) where dogs can run and romp around without a leash. Otherwise, the rule in Bonn is that owners must keep their dogs on a leash on streets, in city squares and in parks.

The five so-called free-running areas that exist in the city are exempt from the regulation. Another one, Reuterpark, will be added shortly. In the Hardtberg district, the area where dogs do not have to be leashed is in Derletal. Rebien is never actually out and about in that area. The 43-year-old has several reasons for this: the area is too small, it is not maintained and it is located on a slope, not far from a road. "It's also not attractive for walking," Rebien says.

The situation is quite different in Beuel, Rebien reports. The area is large, flat and also a popular meeting place for dog owners. Petra Spinath, who also used to travel to Beuel from Lengsdorf with her dog, reports the same thing. Both consider the free-running area in Derletal to be unsuitable. But it is so important for dogs that they can run freely. "The animals must also be able to romp around sometimes, follow their natural urge to be active," says Rebien. "It's sad that there are so few areas in Bonn where this is possible.”

In Hamburg, where she lived for a long time, it was different. There is no district there that does not have a free-running area - even if they are occasionally somewhat smaller. The political parties in the Hardtberg district council also agreed that there should be more free-running areas in the district. They wanted the city administration to examine whether more of them could be set up in the district. The politicians took a look at the orchard meadows in Brüser Berg, which border on the district of Ückesdorf, a meadow at the equestrian center on Wesselheideweg in Duisdorf and an area called "Im Pesch" in Lengsdorf.

City does not want to establish additional areas for dogs

The city rejected all three proposals. The meadow orchards are a habitat for endangered and protected plants and animals, the meadows contribute to the preservation of biodiversity. "Due to freely running dogs, there is disturbance of nesting during the breeding season (...)," the city wrote in its statement. "If the parent birds are driven away by free-roaming dogs, they may abandon the nests with the young, leaving them to starve." As well, dog excrement would contaminate the meadows and result in fruit no longer fit for consumption.

The area "Im Pesch" is also out of the question for the city. This is because it is the "only larger public green space in Lengsdorf”. It should be possible for all citizens to continue to use it without restriction. The city also considers the meadow at the equestrian facility on Wesselheideweg to be unsuitable. It is only 500 meters away from the free-running area in Derletal anyway.

The argument about the fruit orchards is something members of the political parties can follow. For Michael Möller (CDU) it is however just as clear that the meadow in the Derletal is not suitable and therefore hardly visited. The other political factions agree. Möller could imagine separating a piece of the meadow at the equestrian facility with a fence for dogs.

Peter Leonhardt (Greens) and Dominik Loosen (SPD) could also well imagine this. But part of the meadow would also have to be kept for joggers and families who spend time there. "We have to consider both sides there," Leonhardt says. "The meadow is totally popular with everyone," Loosen says. Dog owner Rebien also confirms that.

Loosen still remembers the discussion about the meadow in Derletal. "That was a compromise. The focus was on designating a meadow at all," he says. "But the solution wasn't quite ideal." Loosen could envision doing away with the current open space and instead designating another that better meets the needs of dog owners and animals.

The administration will now need to look for a suitable green area in the city district. This was decided unanimously by the district representation.

Orig. text: Dennis Scherer

Translation: ck

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