After 10 years of leasing the space, Sedona’s greyhound club cannot run their dogs at Posse Grounds
Park after July.
“They’re basically leaving us with nowhere to go and it’s a problem. They’ve been allowing this for years,” member of the greyhound group Laurel Romm said. “And so to suddenly step in and say, ‘no, you can’t do it anymore,’ is an issue.”
Sheila Harding started the group back around 2012 when she saw a need for an area and time for her greyhounds, and others, to run around. Greyhounds are one of the fastest domestic animals you can own, running up to 45 mph.
According to the city’s Parks and Recreation Manager Dawn Norman, this is not a new rule for the multi-use fields.
“City code has been in place for quite some time restricting dogs from the athletic fields,” Norman said. “The multi-use field is currently closed for repairs with estimated completion by the beginning of September.”
The code states that domestic animals shall be kept on a leash at all times at parks and recreation facilities except at the Sedona dog park or when participating in a program. It also states that domestic animals are not permitted on the fields at all unless authorized by the city manager or their designee.
According to the group, they received permission from Parks and Recreation for the group. The city manager’s office did not
comment on whether the city granted special permission to the group in the past.
Now the city is referring the owners to use the Sedona Dog Park off of Soldier Pass Road. But for the greyhound owners, this does not seem to be a solution as they worry about their dogs ‘and others’ safety.
“I am a dog owner with dog park and Yappy Hour experience and would never consider mixing my German shepherd and Boxer with the Greys because of the high risk of injury,” longtime Sedona resident Salvatore Lopes said.
Yappy Hour is a city program, opposed to the greyhound group, that is a private group of residents who rented out the field directly from Parks & Recreation. The Yappy Hour group receives permission from the city to periodically meet at the Posse Ground Park.
“Greyhounds cannot really be around other Yappy dogs,” Greyhound group member Sandy Marcel said. “It ’s dangerous for them because they have paper-thin skin, and it’s also dangerous because the little Yapper dogs could look like rabbits to them and they could hurt them.
So we can’t take a chance putting them together, but they get along well with each other.”
The group will present their issue to the City Council at their meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 9.
